Beyond the arena, rodeo stars trade boots for scrubs, uniforms, and textbooks, proving incredible talent stretches far beyond their western dreams.
Chasing dreams on the rodeo road costs money. Lots of it. Because of this, many rodeo athletes have a full-time career or several side jobs outside of the work they do in the arena. It’s amazing to get glimpses into their lives outside of the rodeo world and see how far their talents stretch beyond their love for the western way.
From the medical field to the classroom to the construction industry and beyond, there are cowboys and cowgirls in every career you can think of. A few prominent examples show the diversity of career ambitions that exist in the industry.
Breakaway roping sensation Tacy Kay Webb spends her days tending to the critically ill as an ICU nurse. Despite the demanding nature of this job, she has followed in the footsteps of her parents' rodeo success and has still managed to achieve big money wins in both the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association (the NIRA) and in the pro rodeo world. Many young rodeo athletes are in college. While college rodeo teams provide great opportunities that work with class schedules, some also choose to go the pro rodeo route from an early age instead.
Team roper Clint McMurtry chose the military for his life of service, and spent most of his career as an Air Force Crew Chief. Yet he has never given up on his passion for swinging a rope, entering rodeos whenever he could. Many others who follow his career choice of service to our country also find an outlet in the Professional Armed Forces Rodeo Association.
Dr. Jason Stoneback has an executive job and yet competes as a team roper with his wife as his partner. When not chasing steers, he serves as the Director of Orthopedic Trauma and Fracture Surgery as well as Director of Inpatient Orthopedic Medical Services at University of Colorado Hospital.
While these athletes always seem to find a way to make it work despite the nature of their careers, some fields lend themselves to the schedule of the rodeo world better than others. A good example of this is becoming a teacher. Teachers get the summers off, which is peak time for rodeo, allowing them to work the school year and still make it to Cowboy Christmas.
Breakaway roper and owner/clinician at Rodeo University, Chelsea Novosad has taken this route, teaching school when not competing or traveling to put on clinics. She uses her passion for teaching to share her passion for the sport outside of the classroom.
In the world of pro barrel racing, the careers are equally diverse. Barrel racer Margo Crowther and her husband own a roofing business. Fellow barrel racer Wenda Johnson is a nurse practitioner. Even while working in her demanding career as a nurse practitioner, Wenda earned $138, 428 in 2025 alone, leaving her 13th in the Women’s Pro Rodeo Association (WPRA) barrel racing world standings.
It might seem normal to have a hobby and a career, but rodeo is no part-time hobby. It’s an all-encompassing lifestyle. In the rodeo world, horses have to be fed, stalls cleaned, dummies roped, horses worked, and skills honed. This often happens early in the morning or later at night and is another full-time job in the form of passion work.
When there are only 24 hours in the day, it takes a lot of sacrifices to make these dreams come to fruition. But with passion and discipline, these cowboys and cowgirls and their colleagues are proof that it is doable.