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.

Illustrated throughout with wonderful photographs, this rich tapestry of women's voices echoes and challenges our clichs 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.

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.

"Bell brings the diverse world of competitive rodeo to life with vivid details and enhances the slow burn, opposites attract romance with chemistry and banter. Readers will be captivated." Publishers Weekly, starred review. The rules of being a rodeo queen: no creases, no boyfriends, no mistakes. With more crowns to her name than hairs on her head, Sierra Quintanilla knows the rulebook inside out. And with Closed Circuit, the reality-TV-meets-rodeo-tour competition, back for a second season, she’s ready to play her part to perfection. But no one is actually perfect. And nothing is more dangerous to a rodeo queen than desire… As a teenager, Diablo Sosa was sentenced by a judge to attend a Houston youth rodeo program. Now an attorney at law, Diablo spends his days seeking justice. He would never have returned to the arena but for his old mentor, so why does the pounding in his blood feel like a homecoming? Or perhaps that’s down to Sierra, the hostess, who shines brighter than the studio lights. From Houston to New Orleans, from Miami to Las Vegas, Sierra and Diablo wrestle with a connection that could cost them everything—or else lead them right to where they’re meant to be… A Closed Circuit Novel Book 1: The Wildest Ride

An examination of the Rodeo Queen phenomenon in the American West, from its first appearance at the 1910 Pendleton, Oregon, Round-Up, to 1956, when the Rodeo Queen transformed from a Western into a national symbol.

Sydney Thomas may be the newest Rodeo Queen on the circuit, but she's more than just a pretty face and fabulous horseback rider. If only her new boss could see it! But the frustrating, bossy, drop-dead gorgeous man seems bent on pushing her away every chance he gets. Scott Chandler learned at an early age that he needed to "cowboy up" and take care of his family. The one time he let his guard down, his heart got trampled, and he's not about to let that happen again. He knows Sydney's type: rodeo queens who hide their manipulative ways behind good looks, tight jeans, and glittery tiaras. But just as Scott and Sydney are finally realizing there might be more to their fiery relationship than scorching kisses and passionate nights, secrets from their pasts come back to haunt them. Will the cowboy and the Rodeo Queen ever be able to ride off into the sunset together?

This edited collection is positioned at the nexus of sports, society and creative writing. In its explorations of the intersections of sports writing, analysis of literary contributions and examinations of craft, it offers rare consideration of a rich diversity of form in narratives that occur in, and as creative practice. Included in the collection are dynamic academic investigations into football writing and poetry focused on community sporting activities in Afghanistan, to those addressing the intersections of writing and boxing in the reflexive reclamation of the post-trauma self, the absence of women in the rodeo and who and what is represented in our sports shelves. This book breaks new ground in approaches to sport’s role in creative writing and what creative writing can provide in furthering our understanding of sport in society. The works in this edited book draw on a diverse range of methods to interrogate the processes, concepts and liminal spaces through an intersectional array of voices, offering analysis and insight into the application of creative writing knowledge and practice in relation to sport and its impact on wider discipline discussion and research. It is relevant to students and scholars studying and researching creative writing, sports writing, sports studies, cultural studies and sports media studies.