The working ranch horse competition at the Western Heritage Classic, prelude to the Ranch Horse Association of American National Finals on Saturday, starts on Thursday and is free to the public.


dent of the WHC executive commit- tee, whose Guitar Ranches is one of 10 competing ranches in the rodeo. “But, like all events, in the begin- ning it struggled getting sponsors, it struggled getting attendance. It wasn’t just an overnight success, I’ll say that. We started with very small crowds and basically no sponsors, then got a few sponsors. It was just


56 The Cattleman December 2013


an uphill battle to get to where we are today.” Guitar says there were other


ranch rodeos in the region prior to 1985. The fi rst was in Wichita Falls. “People liked the idea of something for ranches to do to compete with each other,” he says. “It was an idea that sprang up all over the coun- try — ‘Let’s put on a ranch rodeo’


— so they just kind of popped up in every little town in West Texas. Some of them were just localized events, and some of them worked to be bigger. It was a challenge once you got into it to realize you can’t grow these events unless they’re organized and you’ve got sponsors and money.” Many of those early ranch ro-


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