Winter 2019
Buckin’ hunger
Farmers and cowboys fight food insecurity at the Pendleton Roundup in Oregon by gathering food and donations to help food banks in Portland and other areas around the state. » More ...
Rodeos
Spring 2019
Taking the bull not by the horns
Professional rodeo clown and Washington State University alumnus JJ Harrison defuses Brahma bulls in the arena, and disarms preteen bullies in the classroom. » More ...
Fall 2018
Gallery: WSU horses through the years
The equestrian history of Washington State goes back to the founding of the school. Take a photographic tour below of some of the many ways WSU has been connected to horses.
Read about the WSU Equestrian team in “Back in the saddles,” Fall 2018.
Fall 2010
Round-Up and recovery
Locals often see Mike and Jill Thorne on the two-lane highway between their ranch outside Pendleton and the Oregon city’s rodeo grounds. As the 100th anniversary of the Pendleton Round-Up comes in September, the couple is busy preparing both the rodeo site and their community for the big party.
Since the first bronco bucked, the event has been drawing participants and spectators from across the Pacific Northwest. Today, it’s one of the 10 biggest rodeos in the country. It may be rooted in Oregon, but the event has many ties to Washington, including two of its key volunteers, Mike and Jill … » More …
Fall 2003
Rodeo Queens and the American Dream
Whether we meet them in a pasture, at a burger joint, or in a comfortable kitchen, the women in Joan Burbick’s Rodeo Queens and the American Dream take us beyond the dust and glitter of the rodeo that for one season made them royal. Burbick, an American studies professor at Washington State University, began her engrossing study by wondering, Where are the former rodeo queens whose pictures appear annually in local newspapers? How have their lives turned out? Talking with the women yielded much tougher questions.
More than a series of interviews, Rodeo Queens explores rodeo as an American “cultural ritual.” Without losing sight of … » More …