For nearly three weeks out of the year, NRG Stadium trades in its role as the epicenter of Houston Texans football to house world-class and rookie rodeo athletes alike, vying for their opportunity to secure champion titles in a variety of rodeo events.
Some of these men and women are homegrown Texans, while others are from all across the country and beyond. They come together to compete in steer wrestling, tie-down roping, team roping, bareback, bull and saddle bronc riding.
More recently, a growing number of female professionals have had the opportunity to take the stage at RodeoHouston in a newer competition. Women’s breakaway roping was added to RodeoHouston in 2022 as a week-long event before becoming part of the usual 20-day Super Series programming alongside barrel racing last year.
The competition is heating up. This week marks the second and third rounds of the final three-day Super Series before the first round of semifinals starts on Wednesday.
“I’m No Spring Chicken”
Parker Breding knows he’s part of the older crowd of competitors despite being 31 years old. For bull riders particularly, rodeo careers can be short-lived. Between the bumps, bruises and accidents, longevity is a cause for concern that Breding hadn’t dealt with until recent years. But so far, he hasn’t let it stop him.
Breding has been riding bulls professionally for roughly 13 years, starting when he was 10. His first year at RodeoHouston was in 2013, and he has been qualifying to come back out for most of his career. Before his debut in the city, he was no stranger to Houston, as his father, five-time National Finals Rodeo Qualifier Scott Breding, rodeoed in the Astrodome.
Growing up, he was fascinated by bucking bulls but scared of riding them at first. Breding says he would’ve preferred to own them, but he has since mastered managing his fear and using it as fuel to ignite his rides.
“I think anybody who’s a bull rider is lying if they say they don’t feel any fear when they’re getting on. In my opinion, it kind of helps us [bull riders] fire on all cylinders if we have a little bit of nerves going on,” Breding said. “I think you kind of learn to control it more than anything.”
“Anything can go wrong at any moment. It’s a live animal, and being on them [bulls] in the bucking chute, trying to leave it, is dangerous,” he added. “There are just a lot of variables that can go into it, and you’re relying a lot on your equipment.”
Breding reflected on an incident a couple of weeks ago while competing at the San Antonio Rodeo. At the end of one of his rides, the wire that holds the spur on his boot broke, causing him to lose his footing and flip off the back of the bull.
“Luckily, his [the bull’s] feet landed away from me. You can try to control things like that as much as you want, but I checked my equipment, and it all looked good. Then that wire just broke,” he said. “It’s kind of nerve-wracking, but it’s just something we deal with.”
Breding mentally maps out rides in his head before getting on the back of a bull to do his best to mitigate any real-time issues from arising. His physical preparation includes keeping his body limber and training back home on a mechanical barrel — similar to a mechanical bull that only goes up and down — or riding horses.
During his off time, he team ropes and does “anything to stay sane” while not on the road. This includes fishing and his recent venture into the world of golf after getting a membership to a course about 30 miles away from his house. Breding enjoys playing a couple of rounds, but to his dismay, he admits that he has not improved his game.
Breding won the bull riding championship at RodeoHouston in 2018. He says it was huge for his career and bank account — each champion is paid $50,000 this year plus their previous round earnings. His mantra for the final days of competition is, “One bull at a time. Try to ride my bull each day.”
“I would like to go the long haul, at least give myself a shot to win it and get that final four on Sunday and let the cards fall where they’re going,” he said.
Pivoting Plans And Lasting Legacies
Jordan Jo Hollabaugh planned on continuing work through her marketing business, Fabrizio Marketing & Web Design, and operating her podcast “In The LOOP,” where she shares the insides and outs of her rodeo guests’ lives while competing on the side as a breakaway roper.
That was until the event started receiving professional recognition and began appearing in professional rodeo programs, including RodeoHouston, in recent years.
She said RodeoHouston was one of the first professional rodeos to put the event on a big stage.
“To have a chance to walk in and rope with 80,000 people watching you is a little overwhelming but exciting and an honor,” Hollabaugh said. “It just makes me grateful that we get to compete as professional women in rodeo and have this opportunity.”
“It really changed the game for us. It gave us the chance to rodeo as professionals. I think now it’s neat to know that young ladies can actually dream of their careers as professionals, whether it’s being a breakaway roper or a barrel racer,” she added. “There’s an outlet there for them, and the future is bright for it.”
Hollabaugh started competing in rodeos at six years old. She knew nothing other than rodeoing, having grown up among family members who were also athletes and enveloped in the agricultural Western way of life—which she says she wouldn’t change for the world.
At 33, Hollabaugh has been rodeoing for more than 27 years and describes female breakaway ropers as “having been around for a long time, just not in rodeos.” She decided to attend West Texas A&M University, where she received a master’s degree, initially not seeing an opportunity to progress to this level.
Now, alongside roping professionally, she uses her degree daily, maintaining her marketing business’s operations — working on websites, social media, and any form of business marketing — and her podcast. Hollabaugh started it to share the stories of those she met while rodeoing.
“It’s amazing all the people we meet from different walks of life,” she said. “I feel like we as athletes in the industry see them [other athletes] in the arena, but we don’t see them outside of the arena.”
Hollabaugh said that the podcast also serves as a way to help or highlight other elements of the athletes’ lives, such as bringing attention to any businesses they may have or work they do on the side of rodeoing.
According to Hollabaugh, it has assisted her with molding what her rodeo life will look like after she retires from competing professionally.
“There are so many people within the industry now, I think, that are just trying to have a longer viewpoint for their life and rodeo instead of maybe just competing and being done,” Hollabaugh said. “It’s like, how can I create my legacy outside of rodeo through rodeo? What doors can rodeo open for me?
Paying The Way
Blane Cox grew up watching both his parents ride, but they never quite rose to the professional level, unlike Cox, who made his debut as a tie-down roper in 2012.
Cox says he knew what he wanted to do from the day he was born. He caught his first calf at a rodeo when he was five. This year marks his eighth RodeoHouston, qualifying himself as a seasoned veteran.
Cox describes himself as a firm believer in “what’s going to happen is what’s supposed to happen.” He’s not superstitious, much like his peers.
However, Cox does believe he brings an edge to the competition: his background as an equine dentist. He has practiced this care for 10 years after graduating from an equine dentistry program out of New Mexico.
Cox initially heard about it through a friend, the teacher at the school that offered the program. He had already received an agricultural business degree and a welding degree, but he hadn’t yet figured out how to apply them to work.
He knew he wanted to compete in professional rodeos while making money on the side to support his competition.
“I wanted to do something or have a plan B to fall back on if I needed money,” Cox said. “I wanted to do something that was in our industry and something that I would like to do and be around the same people that I’m around every day, roping and practicing and doing all that.”
Since completing schooling, he has seen horses every year for routine maintenance and check-ups while not on the road rodeoing. Cox also responds to more urgent calls such as tooth removals and tooth additions and assists with horses who have never had their teeth floated — reducing points or overgrowths to allow for more comfortable chewing.
“As a person who trains on my own personal horses most of the time, I think it has a huge benefit in knowing how a horse’s mouth works and how the bit [a metal or rubber device that sits inside a horse’s mouth for control] needs to work in a horse’s mouth,” Cox said. It also helps knowing what bit to ride on what horse.”
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This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
