At age four, Anne T. Reason fell in love with everything about the rodeoespecially saddle bronc riding. Years later, she married a saddle bronc rider who at the age of fifty-two, ignored his bad knees and arthritis and rode his first bull. Throughout all her years of attending and working rodeos, Reason has developed a great passion for the sport, the people, their responsibilities, and, most of all, their deep love and appreciation for their livestock. In a comprehensive reference manual, Reason consults experts such as past queens, judges, directors, and an equine vet to share valuable, behind-the-scenes insight for future rodeo queens and their families. Through timeless and expert guidance, future competitors will learn helpful interview preparation tips, general information about the horsemanship competition and arena etiquette, how to find and model proper rodeo attire, and how to properly care for equines. Also included is a large glossary of rodeo and western terms as well as illustrations. Rodeo Queen 101 combines expertise with personal stories to provide step-by-step direction for future rodeo queens and their families interested in competiing locally and nationally.

Rodeo has always been considered a supremely masculine sport, a rough and tumble display of macho strength and skill. But author Joan Burbick shows us the other side of rodeo: the world of rodeo queens--part cowgirl and part pageant princess--who wave and smile and keep the dream of the ideal Western woman alive. So who are the women behind the candy-red chaps, Farrah Fawcett curls, and rhinestone tiaras? Burbick traveled the backroads of the rural West for years, trying to find out. She interviewed dozens of queens, including rodeo royalty from the 1930s and 40s, women who grew up breaking wild horses, branding calves, and witnessing the sad decline of the ranching life. Stories from white and Native American rodeo queens in the 1950s and 1960s, the golden age of rodeo, reveal the conflicts over gender and race that shaped the rodeo and the Cold War politics of small Western towns. Finally, rodeo queens from the 1970s to the present describe a more fiercely commercial rodeo, driven largely by TV-ratings and sponsorships, glitter and hairspray. Illustrated throughout with wonderful photographs, this rich tapestry of women's voices echoes and challenges our clichés of the rural West. Their combined stories of fulfilled dreams and lost hopes reveal the tenacity of the myth of the American West, a place of muscled men, golden-haired women, relentless beauty and tragic limits.

Guts and glory, bulls and barrel racing, spurs and scars are all part of rodeo, a sport of epic legends. Cowboys and cowgirls use brain and brawn to contend for prizes and placement, but more often than not, it is the prestige of honorable competition that spurs them on. College Rodeo covers the history of the sport on college campuses from the first organized contest in 1920 to the national championship of 2003. In the early years of the twentieth century, a growing number of kids from farms and ranches attended college, many choosing the land grant institutions that allowed them to prepare for agricultural careers back home. They brought with them a love for the skills, challenges, and competition they had known—a taste for rodeo. The first-ever college rodeo was held at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas. It offered bronco busting, goat roping, saddle racing, polo, a greased pig contest, and country ballads from a quartet. The rodeo was a fund-raising effort that grew enormously popular; by its third year, the rodeo at Texas A&M drew some fifteen hundred people. The idea spread to other campuses, and nineteen years later, the first intercollegiate rodeo with eleven colleges and universities competing was held in 1939 at the ranch arena of an entrepreneur near Victorville, California. Seldom does a college sport exist for eighty years without having a book written about it, but college rodeo has. Sylvia Gann Mahoney has written the first history of the sport, tracing its growth parallel to the development of professional rodeo and the growth of the organizational structure that governs college rodeo. Mahoney draws on personal interviews as well as the archives of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association and newspaper accounts from participating schools and their hometowns. Mahoney chronicles the events, profiles winners, and analyzes the organizational efforts that have contributed to the colorful history of college rodeo. She traces the changing role of women, noting their victories that were ignored by much of the contemporary press in the early days of the sport. College Rodeo highlights outstanding individuals through extensive interviews, giving credit to the pioneers of college rodeo. This book includes rare photographs of rodeo teams, champions, and rodeo queens, blended with the true life details of sweat and tears that make intercollegiate rodeo such a popular sport.

Forged from glaciers and sacred to Native Americans, the mountains, boulders, and rocks of the Alabama Hills mirror landscapes found all over the world. A scenic three-hour drive from the Hollywood sign, this location would prove to serve as the place to make movies. Early Hollywood studios sent location scouts to the area after hearing stories shared by travelers, and the rest is movie history. Over 500 films have completed shooting here, including silents, A movies, B Westerns, serials, sci-fi, film noir, television shows, and commercials. Tom Mix, Errol Flynn, John Wayne, William Boyd, Clayton Moore, Lucille Ball, Roy Rogers, Natalie Wood, Humphrey Bogart, Steve McQueen, Russell Crowe, Jamie Foxx, and many more have all scrambled amongst the terrain in the Alabama Hills.

Think you know what rural America is like? Discover a plurality of perspectives in this enlightening anthology of stories that turns preconceptions on their head. Gracie sees a chance of fitting in at her South Carolina private school, until a “white trash”–themed Halloween party has her steering clear of the rich kids. Samuel’s Tejano family has both stood up to oppression and been a source of it, but now he’s ready to own his true sexual identity. A Puerto Rican teen in Utah discovers that being a rodeo queen means embracing her heritage, not shedding it. . . . For most of America’s history, rural people and culture have been casually mocked, stereotyped, and, in general, deeply misunderstood. Now an array of short stories, poetry, graphic short stories, and personal essays, along with anecdotes from the authors’ real lives, dives deep into the complexity and diversity of rural America and the people who call it home. Fifteen extraordinary authors—diverse in ethnic background, sexual orientation, geographic location, and socioeconomic status—explore the challenges, beauty, and nuances of growing up in rural America. From a mountain town in New Mexico to the gorges of New York to the arctic tundra of Alaska, you’ll find yourself visiting parts of this country you might not know existed—and meet characters whose lives might be surprisingly similar to your own. Featuring contributors: David Bowles Joseph Bruchac Veeda Bybee Nora Shalaway Carpenter Shae Carys S. A. Cosby Rob Costello Randy DuBurke David Macinnis Gill Nasugraq Rainey Hopson Estelle Laure Yamile Saied Méndez Ashley Hope Pérez Tirzah Price Monica Roe

The Livingston Roundup Rodeo was started in 1926 by a group of local businessmen. Their goal was to create an event to keep travelers in Livingston. The rodeo continued until the onset of World War II and was canceled during the war years. In the late 1940s, a young man approached one of the local businessmen and asked to use money held at the First National Park Bank (today known as First Interstate Bank) to revive the old rodeo. Today, the Livingston Roundup Rodeo is one on the most renowned events of its kind. Visitors come from all over the world to attend this wonderful three-day event that occurs every year from July 2 to 4. Hosting more than 5,000 people every night, the rodeo has seen wedding parties, family reunions, and even a surprise engagement every now and then.