Keeping Stories Alive
It’s often been said that we see glimpses of our truest self during our childhood. Our passions and dreams during these formative years are sometimes drowned out by the demands and voices of daily life in adulthood, but when we pause to reflect on what still sparks our inner light, we may discover it is the same thing that has been there all along.
Jessie Jarvis is devoted to honoring the western industry through preserving its past and offering new possibilities for its future. Founder of the unique job board Of The West, Jarvis and her husband Justin have been intertwined with the industry all of their lives in the unique intersection of ranch, rodeo, and stock shows.
If you’ve stopped scrolling through Facebook because a beautiful pair of spurs caught your eye, there is a good chance you were looking at a picture of Brian Strange’s work. Brian is a true artisan with a focus on metal smithing and producing spurs, buckles, and bits.
Tenaya Wilson is a horse trainer with a knack for discovering the hidden potential in horses that life has tossed aside. She and her husband own the aptly named Rough Diamond Ranch, which has become a home to several on her string while also providing the opportunity for a temporary training bond before others went on to their forever home.
The ballad “In the Pines” has been covered by legendary musicians from Loretta Lynn to Kurt Cobain with each artist adding their own interpretation to what the verses conjure for the listener. Today, a soulful adaptation will be added to the ranks with the release of the single from cowboy crooner Sterling Drake.
Nestled on the main drag of downtown Noble, Oklahoma, down from Tiffany’s breakfast spot and across from the Spurs and Lace boutique is a small shop where heritage is preserved through custom hat making. Schafer’s Hats, owned by Fred Schafer, produces custom, hand-made fine felt hats for men and women all over the country.
Sabrina Kramer has found healing through her ability to create vivid imagery out of air and tell stories without using words. A barrel racer, a soldier in the U.S. Army, a wife, mother, and friend to many, she is the main artist and owner of Wild Cactus Tack.
Kramer grew up unable to speak at the age of 5, an orphan to the drug epidemic, and labeled by doctors as a lost cause.
While Monty Dyer’s passion for rodeo is apparent, he modestly states he’s just done it so long he doesn’t know how to quit. Truly a lifelong cowboy, his dad put him on his first horse as a child growing up in Ottawa, Kansas. His dad rodeoed and focused on rough stock events such as bareback and bull riding until Monty was born and he switched over to calf roping exclusively. Monty followed in his footsteps, taking on calf roping as a young man and continuing to hone his craft today through competition in the United Rodeo Association’s (URA) over 40 division.
Kendra Santos knows the power in a name. Whether it belongs to your horse, your mother, or your newborn child, it will leave her lips or fingertips with the respect and compassion it deserves.
The impossible longing to be ever more deeply connected. To see glimpses of the creatures that live wild and free and be reminded of the one who created them all.
Tell me you wonder If the belly of a catfish got to be so soft from years of mud caresses and smoothing waters, as though if you’d slip in there on a warm summer night you too would start to shed your armor and develop soft spots of openings to your soul.
Tell me you imagine—the moment you join your horse in the pasture, toss your feet up in the air and run as fast as you can, sweet air pumping into your lungs and flaring your nostrils with the same sense of reckless abandon you felt during your first passionate kiss.
