Bucking in the blood: For these, gay rodeo is an all-around lifestyle

Later, early Colorado gay rodeo organizers Wayne Jakino and John King asked Beck to sit down with them and write rules for rodeo competition, which had until then been unstandardized, drawing from Beck’s background and experience with the sport.

That “conception” started developing into a rodeo, Beck said, “then other states started joining.” Colorado held its first official gay rodeo in 1983, and Texas, California, Arizona and Oklahoma started hosting their own rodeos, building a national circuit.

Interest grew rapidly over the next decade, and over the next years individual rodeos began attracting hundreds or even thousands of spectators.

But despite the large numbers of fans, the die-hards who traveled the whole circuit remained a tight-knit group, said Ken Pool, 50, of Elizabeth, Colorado, who has been involved in IGRA for more than 20 years.

“It’s a little bit like a traveling circus, in a way,” Pool said. “You build relationships with the volunteers and contestants.”

Pool has done a variety of local and major rodeos, but said that none compare to the camaraderie and friendship – even between those directly competing against each other – in the gay rodeo.

“You see a lot of people kinda bust out and be who they are,” Pool said. “They give their all in the arena – there’s something about that that’s really fulfilling.”

Pool, a native of Tomball, Texas, got involved in the rodeo when he lived in West Hollywood, brought along by friend on a road trip to a rodeo in Phoenix. There Pool’s interest piqued, and he took classes in Los Angeles to learn the ropes. After he was hooked, and eventually moved to Denver, he got a job at the opening of the Denver Wrangler – a bar that sponsored him on the rodeo circuit when he was traveling to a dozen or so rodeos in a year. Pool said he later branched out to straight rodeos too, but “couldn’t have ever had that confidence if it wasn’t for the gay rodeo.”

The gay rodeo is a lifestyle that’s easy to get immersed in, some coming to the sport to reclaim a Western upbringing, others purely through the LGBT community. But among all types, the gay rodeo’s close community is one that knows how to let down and have fun – known for sparking long friendships and romances on the circuit, and parties at each stop.

“Gay rodeos are a little more of a balance between the rodeo and a good time,” Pool said. “Some of the younger guys – they refer to them as ‘buckle bunnies’ – there’s definitely a mystique about guys brave enough to get up on the rough stock.”

Nothing can last forever, and eventually Pool ended his bull riding days; “when I finally retired from it, it was because I was tired of getting hurt. It messed up my weekend,” he said. It’s been 10 years since he rode a bull, but Pool continues with horse events – “some of the best horses in the country are in gay rodeo,” he said. And involvement in the gay rodeo – competition or not – is a lifelong opportunity.