Dispatches from the arena. Real thoughts on rodeo operations, Western gear, and the life behind this brand.
Most rodeos don't run on paid staff. They run on volunteers — people who show up year after year because they love the event, know the committee, or were asked by someone they trust. This isn't a problem. It is, however, a fact that shapes every decision you make about how an event operates, whether you acknowledge it or not.
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People ask me what a well-run rodeo security operation looks like. My honest answer is: you don't see it. The crowd moves cleanly. The gates open on time. Nobody's fighting to get in, nobody's wandering where they shouldn't be, and when something does go sideways — and something always does — it gets handled quietly, quickly, and without the moment bleeding into the main event.
Read the full note →The American Royal has been part of Kansas City since 1899. I didn't work it. I grew up inside it.
Read the full note →There's no shortage of Western apparel in this country. Walk into any feed store, any boot shop, any airport in the Southern half of the United States and you'll find hats, tees, and hoodies with a rope font and a longhorn on them. Most of it is fine. Some of it is good. Almost none of it has anything behind it.
Read the full note →I've seen events almost come apart from each of these. Some didn't almost — they did. Here's what actually goes wrong, and it's almost never what the committee was worried about.
Read the full note →There's a version of this job that ends when the last contestant clears the gate. The crowd is gone, the lights are still up, and the dirt in the arena still has the shape of the night in it — the skid marks, the hoof prints, the scuff where somebody hit the fence and it held. Most people don't see an arena like that. Most people see it when it's loud and bright and full. I see it on both ends.
Read the full note →There's a version of Broken M Ranch that has forty SKUs and a seasonal release schedule. We made a deliberate decision not to be that. Here's why, and what it means for the people buying the gear.
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