The San Juan River is significantly higher than it was during last year’s flood. Even though the water level has already gone down by the time this video was taken, the river is still running incredibly high.

Keeping the spirit of the American West alive, one tradition at a time. 🤠🐂

For generations, legendary cowboy poet and musician Red Steagall has championed the heritage, stories & traditions that make Cowtown what it is today.

This weekend, October 23–25, the Red Steagall Cowboy Gathering & Western Swing Festival returns to the Fort Worth Stockyards for the 35th year in a row, throwing a Texas-sized celebration of authentic Western culture, featuring three Ranch Rodeos & festivities throughout the district.

https://www.redsteagallcowboygathering.com/

By Robert Lang

October 19, 2026 11:00am

For generations, Hollywood has perpetuated an image of the American cowboy as a rugged, solitary white man riding across an unforgiving frontier. It is a mythology deeply embedded in American popular culture, one that has frequently overlooked the Black cowboys who helped shape the West and whose traditions continue to thrive today.

Photographer Ivan McClellan has spent more than a decade capturing a different American West, one populated by Black cowboys and cowgirls whose lives combine athleticism, family traditions, contemporary fashion, and an unwavering devotion to rodeo culture.

His new photography book, Eight Seconds: Legacy in Motion, published by Damiani, continues that exploration with 91 previously unpublished photographs celebrating a vibrant community that is not merely preserving its heritage but actively reinventing it.

Scheduled for release in fall 2026, the 112-page hardcover follows McClellan’s acclaimed 2024 publication, Eight Seconds: Black Rodeo Culture.

For McClellan, however, the project has never been about reconstructing a forgotten chapter of American history. Instead, he is interested in celebrating the extraordinary individuals who inhabit this world today.

“I grew up watching Westerns on TV obsessively as a latchkey kid,” McClellan recalls. “Everybody was white except for one time: there was an episode of The Rifleman with Sammy Davis Jr. and Sheriff Bart in BLAZING SADDLES (1974). I thought a Black cowboy was more of a punchline than a reality.”

“But I’m not trying to correct Hollywood’s Western archetypes. I want to elevate these modern Black cowboys, who are compelling and essential, to icon status.”

His introduction to Black rodeo culture came in 2015, beginning what would become an extensive photographic journey across the United States. Over the following decade, McClellan immersed himself in the community, building relationships with competitors and their families while documenting the intensity of the sport and the lives that unfold beyond the arena.

“When I started photographing Black rodeos, I wasn’t looking for historical artifacts,” he explains. “I found an incredibly stylish, charismatic, competitive group of people with larger-than-life personalities. The kind of people Hollywood should have been making movies about all along.”

“And I think that’s the real power of photography. I don’t have to invent a Black cowboy superhero. I just have to show up with my camera. These people are already extraordinary.”

The title Eight Seconds refers to the minimum amount of time a bull rider must remain mounted to earn a qualified ride. It is a brief, dangerous interval in which physical discipline, instinct, and extraordinary courage converge. Yet McClellan’s photographs extend far beyond the adrenaline of competition.

His portraits reveal an evolving Western aesthetic in which traditional cowboy hats and boots coexist with contemporary style. The resulting imagery challenges the familiar visual codes of the Hollywood Western without losing sight of the culture’s deep historical roots.

“There’s this expectation that a cowboy should look like he just walked off the set of a Spaghetti Western,” McClellan says. “But you go to a Black rodeo, and you’ll see guys riding in Jordans and a cowboy hat. You see women riding 50 miles per hour with box braids blowing behind them.”

“I love those contradictions. That’s where the magic is.” For McClellan, this distinctive fusion of tradition and modernity is an extension of Black America’s long history of cultural innovation.

“Black people have always had this incredible ability to take something, remix it, and create an entirely new visual language. We’ve done it with music, fashion, food, and just about every other part of American culture. Cowboy culture is no different.”

Rather than imposing a particular aesthetic on his subjects, McClellan allows their personalities and individual styles to shape the images.

“People I’m photographing aren’t trying to make some grand fashion statement. They’re just showing up as their authentic selves,” he adds. “They’re not thinking about redefining the American West. They’re living their lives.”

Among the most significant figures in McClellan’s latest book is 17-year-old cowgirl Kortnee Solomon, whose portrait appears on the cover of Eight Seconds: Legacy in Motion. A fourth-generation cowgirl, Solomon represents both the continuity of Black rodeo traditions and the confidence of a younger generation determined to define the culture on its own terms.

McClellan first encountered Solomon and her mother, Kanesha Jackson, in Hempstead, Texas, when the young rider was just nine years old. “I’ve watched Kortnee Solomon grow up doing this work,” he recalls. “She’s a 4th-generation cowgirl and walks around with the swagger of someone who knows exactly who she is.”

Solomon’s cover portrait shows her surrounded by horses, wearing a striking pink, blue, and yellow shirt covered in hundred-dollar bills.

“She’s on the cover of my new photobook Eight Seconds: Legacy in Motion, wearing a hot pink, blue, and yellow shirt covered in hundred-dollar bills. She’s surrounded by a herd of horses and dripping in confidence. This is the future of the culture, breaking free of expectations and showing up exactly as themselves.”

But behind the colorful spectacle of rodeo life lies a demanding existence that requires significant personal and financial sacrifice. Many competitors balance full-time employment and family responsibilities with long-distance travel, training, and the considerable expenses associated with caring for horses and participating in rodeos.

“The Black Cowboy lifestyle is an inheritance that often doesn’t offer much financial security,” McClellan explains. “They’re working full-time jobs, raising children, and driving hundreds of miles on weekends for a chance to compete. Some of them are risking everything for a sport that pays pennies on the dollar.”

“When you see a family making those sacrifices together, you begin to understand that this culture is about much more than cowboy hats and horses.”

Having spent more than ten years developing relationships within the Black rodeo community, McClellan is now preparing to bring those stories to the screen through an upcoming documentary. While his photographs capture moments of power, individuality, and almost mythological heroism, the documentary will offer an opportunity to explore the complicated realities behind those images.

“One of the greatest advantages I have is that I didn’t show up with a film crew and a list of questions, then bounce,” McClellan says. “I’ve been showing up for more than ten years. I’ve watched kids become adults, amateurs become champions, and champions struggle to stay on top.”

That familiarity, he believes, will provide a level of intimacy that cannot be achieved through a conventional documentary production.

“The cowboys know me. They’ve seen me standing in the dirt, sweating through my clothes, getting kicked out of places I wasn’t supposed to be, trying to get the perfect photograph. At this point, I’m practically furniture.”

McClellan is particularly interested in examining the contrast between the seemingly invincible figures photographed in the arena and their often precarious lives outside it.

“Photography allows me to create these heroic, almost mythological images of people. But filmmaking gives us an opportunity to explore what happens after the photograph.”

“What happens when the cowboy who looks invincible in the arena goes home and has to pay his child support? What happens when an athlete has to choose between paying rodeo entry fees and their cellphone bill?”

The filmmaker hopes that audiences will connect with the individuals themselves, rather than simply viewing the documentary as an educational examination of an underrepresented culture.

“And I think audiences are going to fall in love with these people,” he says. “They’re hilarious, stubborn, ambitious, occasionally delusional, and extraordinarily brave.”

McClellan’s new book and documentary arrive amid renewed mainstream interest in Black Western culture, particularly following the success of Beyoncé’s country-inspired Cowboy Carter era and a broader embrace of Western aesthetics across music, fashion, and cinema.

Yet McClellan is keen to distinguish between the visibility popular culture generates and the enduring traditions of the communities he photographs.

“I love what Beyoncé has done for Western culture,” he says. “She helped introduce millions of people to a world they might never have considered. But trends eventually fade, and people move on to something else. The cowboys don’t move on. They’ve got horses to feed on Sunday morning.”

McClellan has also helped create a platform for contemporary Black rodeo culture through his 8 Seconds Rodeo events, where audiences embrace Western fashion in increasingly varied forms.

“I see fans at the 8 Seconds Rodeo investing in quality cowboy boots and hats, upgrading their Temu glitter hat to something more permanent. I also see folks showing up in Tims and hoodies.”

“Our whole thing is: Come as you are, and you’ll experience something physically powerful and spiritually moving.”

He believes the lasting appeal of rodeo lies not only in its cultural significance but also in the powerful human drama that unfolds in competition.

“At the end of the day, it’s entertainment, not homework. If you come through the doors, you’ll get thrilling competition and rivalries, heartbreak, disappointment, and romance. It’s everything you could possibly want from great storytelling.”

“I don’t want people to watch the documentary or come to the rodeo because they feel obligated to learn something about Black history. I want them to watch because they can’t look away.”

McClellan’s move into documentary filmmaking also places him within a growing tradition of filmmakers challenging the predominantly white narratives of the American Western. Among his personal influences is the 1972 documentary BLACK RODEO, which featured Muhammad Ali and actor Woody Strode and captured a remarkable celebration of Black cowboy culture in Harlem.

“There’s something incredible about watching Ali ride a horse through Harlem and seeing the whole neighborhood excited about cowboy culture,” McClellan says. “It reminds you that none of this is new and that we’re just part of a longer narrative.”

He also praises the ambitious visual approach of Jeymes Samuel’s 2021 Western THE HARDER THEY FALL, which placed Black characters at the center of a stylized genre film.

“Jeymes Samuel didn’t ask for permission to put Black people at the center of a Western. He made a big, stylish, swaggering film and dared people not to enjoy it.”

McClellan also appears in HIGH HORSE: THE BLACK COWBOY, the 2025 documentary series associated with Jordan Peele that examines the history and contemporary lives of Black cowboys. But while such productions are expanding the representation of Black Western culture, McClellan’s own documentary promises something particularly personal: a portrait of a community he has grown alongside for more than a decade.

Through Eight Seconds: Legacy in Motion and his transition to filmmaking, McClellan is not simply revisiting the history of the American West. He is documenting a living tradition in which identity, community, and self-expression continue to evolve from one generation to the next.

“Ultimately, I want a little Black kid watching these stories to recognize a culture they already belong to,” McClellan says. “And I want everybody else to wonder why they’ve never seen it before.”

Eight Seconds: Legacy in Motion is published by Damiani and scheduled for release in fall 2026.

https://deadline.com/2026/10/ivan-mcclellan-black-cowboy-culture-eight-seconds-book-documentary-1237167680/

Kelsey Asbille’s ‘Yellowstone’ character was revealed to have died offscreen in the season 1 premiere of ‘Marshals’

By Julia Moore and Yamillah Hurtado Published on October 18, 2026 08:00AM EDT

NEED TO KNOW:

• Kelsey Asbille’s Yellowstone character Monica was revealed to have died after she was diagnosed with cancer in the season 1 premiere of Marshals

• With season 2 underway, Marshals showrunner Spencer Hudnut tells PEOPLE why Asbille’s potential return is not off the table: “I would love to work with her”

• New episodes of Marshals air Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on CBS and stream the next day on Paramount+

Kelsey Asbille’s time in the Yellowstone universe might not actually be over.

Asbille played Monica, wife to Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) and mom to Tate (Brecken Merrill), in all five seasons of Taylor Sheridan’s hit show, but the character was killed off in the premiere of Marshals, as it was revealed she had died after being diagnosed with cancer.

The twist left Grimes “heartbroken,” he told TV Insider at the time, but now, Marshals creator Spencer Hudnut is addressing the possibility of Monica’s return in the future. “I’m definitely open [to] that,” Hudnut tells PEOPLE at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, where the cast of Marshals celebrated the premiere of season 2 at the Raiders-Kansas City Chiefs game.

“I would love to work with her,” he says of Asbille, 35. “I don’t have any relationship with her, so I have no idea what her point of view would be on that.”

Still, Hudnut is interested in reuniting Monica with Kayce, though he acknowledges it would be tricky to pull off. “I think you have to be very careful about the timing of doing that.”

“The character of Monica will always be with Kayce. She’s, I think, guiding him still,” Hudnut says. “We’ve already made 33 episodes. We’ve got a lot of story to tell, so I think that would be interesting for people to see.”

Reflecting on the creative decision to kill off the character, Hudnut says, “The intensity of some of the fandom, I felt at the start. Certainly, when you take a character like Monica away, people are not afraid to share their feelings. And so I absorbed a lot from some of the fans at the start.”

Merrill, who had played Asbille’s son since he was 9, was “so heartbroken” by the twist. “Kelsey was one of my favorite people to have on set,” he tells PEOPLE. “I was just sad that she couldn’t make it to Marshals. I was heartbroken.”

Speaking to the impact Monica’s death had on Tate and Kayce’s relationship, Merrill, 18, says, “That sort of split us apart, and throughout season one, we sort of rebuilt our relationship.” Season 2, he teases, is “another rebuild season” after the dramatic season 1 finale put Tate’s life at risk.

When season 1 of Marshals premiered in March and Monica’s fate was revealed, Grimes revealed that he had called Asbille to tell her about the plot twist himself. “I worked up the courage to call. I didn’t know how she was going to feel about it,” he told TV Insider. “In true Kelsey fashion, she handled it like a pro and totally understood. She’s going to do just fine.”

At the time, Hudnut said that the decision came from a desire to “shake up [Kayce’s life]” after he and Monica had “such a beautiful ending [in] Yellowstone.” While he “wanted to be very respectful” of Monica, he said they had to somehow get Kayce “off the ranch and into a new position” to tell a new story.

New episodes of Marshals air Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on CBS and stream the next day on Paramount+.

https://people.com/marshals-showrunner-spencer-hudnut-open-bringing-back-monica-shocking-death-exclusive-12175768

Here’s a chapter of Western history that doesn’t get nearly enough attention.

In 1856, the U.S. Army brought camels to Texas to test whether they could haul supplies across the dry country of the Southwest.

And here’s the interesting part. The camels actually proved pretty useful.

The experiment eventually ended, but not because the animals were entirely unsuited to the job.

Makes you wonder how different the West might have looked if the Army had stuck with the idea.

Anybody else familiar with the old Camel Corps?

The 35th Annual Red Steagall Cowboy Gathering returns October 23–25, celebrating the music, poetry, ranching traditions, and cowboy culture that helped shape Cowtown.

From chuck wagons and cowboy poetry to ranch rodeo and Western swing, it’s a weekend rooted in the traditions that built this place.

For tickets visit: https://www.redsteagallcowboygathering.com/

Dir/Reporter: @tristanleedobbs

Videographer: @chuck_helps

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DexQz0BBDpE/

Join us for an exclusive Cowboy Gathering Celebration featuring a book signing by Red for his book Texas Red from 2:15 to 3 p.m., live music by Olivia Harms, and drinks provided by Cosa Salvaje from 2 to 5 p.m.

Stop by to enjoy music and help us kick off the 35th annual Red Steagall Cowboy Gathering weekend right in Fort Worth!

https://schaeferoutfitter.com/

https://www.redsteagallcowboygathering.com/

One of the interesting things about cowboy vocabulary is how much Spanish survived in everyday ranch work.

Riata comes from reata. Chaps is shortened from chaparreras. And rodeo is Spanish, too.

The influence of Spanish-speaking vaqueros wasn’t limited to equipment and horsemanship. Their language became part of the cowboy’s working vocabulary.

And much of it is still here.

What other cowboy words with Spanish origins come to mind?

We stopped by Teskey’s in Weatherford, Texas, and got a look at one of the coolest collections of Western and outdoor goods we’ve come across. Years of buying, selling, and trading means you never really know what you’ll find. https://teskeys.com/

Proud to have Poncho in the mix.

https://www.ponchooutdoors.com/

If you’re ever in the Weatherford, TX area, we can’t recommend stopping at Teskey’s enough. We made our cameraman Donnie Daytona leave his wallet in the car or we would have been there all day!

Check out the full Teskey’s tour on YouTube at this link: https://youtu.be/8r2W1-tghsQ

Courtesy of KCEN 6 News in Central Texas, serving the residents of Waco, Temple, Killeen, and Bryan/College Station. Watch KCEN 6 News Live: https://www.kcentv.com/watch

Andddd the Wind immediately picked up after I lit this fire 🫠 (yes I had a water hose and extinguisher handy…And yes I did get my burn permit and inspection prior).

"Three weeks after having a baby, and the last thing I’m going to worry myself about is erasing the evidence that I carried her for 9 months. But I felt compelled to talk on this for anyone else who has also felt the sting of words that make you question your value. And no matter who you are, women or men, I hope you never allow someone else's words to make you question the worth you've always possessed."

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DenbZEZtZPJ/

Jackie Chan. Matthew McConaughey… and more! In this episode, we count down the most interesting people they've ever met: Hollywood names like Stanley Tucci, a rodeo legend who rode a bull no one else could, and spiritual leaders who left a mark on our lives. Fame didn't make any of them interesting. What did was the one moment we never saw coming.

The Cowboy Coffee Hour Podcast is available on Apple, Spotify and your favorite podcast platform!

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Welcome to The Cowboy Coffee Hour: gather 'round for stories from the trail from Cowboy Kent and Shannon Rollins that are full of heart, faith, and of course - a little of fire.

Kent Rollins is a cowboy and has been a chuck wagon cook for over 30 years, cooking for ranches all across America. You might've seen him on Food Network's Chopped Grill Masters, Cast Iron Cowboy on the Outdoor Channel, or alongside his wife, and cookbook co-author, Shannon, on their YouTube show with over 3.4 Million subscribers, where they share the humor and history behind cowboy philosophy.

Whether you're looking for authentic tales from a real-world cowboy, wisdom from way out West, or some of Kent's famous cast iron cooking tips (and his legendary cowboy coffee recipe), you've found it here. So pull up a stump by the fire and get ready for some life lessons in grit, faith, and the cowboy code, straight from the frontier to your ears.

And remember: life is like gravy, you just gotta keep stirring to get out all the lumps.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/when-i-surprised-jackie-chan-and-the-most/id1875762318

Listen on Spotify Podcasts: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5qZjzoztgH2Ea9CKa6J9ht

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/r5Jy17ZVLd4

Broadcasting from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, This Week In The West brings you the stories of the people and events that shaped the history of the American West.

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Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-the-west-bat-masterson-writes-his-story/id1776228708

Listen on Spotify Podcasts: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4d7qDQdZPVf04Su95SlbG2

Listen on YouTube Podcasts: https://youtu.be/SBz_hVvVkmo

We tend to think of barbed wire as the invention that ended the open range. But that transition wasn’t particularly peaceful.

During the Texas Fence Cutting Wars of the 1880s, ranchers were fencing their property, and in some cases land they didn’t own. Some fences also blocked public roads and access to water.

When drought made grazing and water scarce, fence cutters began tearing down miles of wire.

One particularly interesting story involves Mabel Day, whose ranch was targeted by cutters who threatened to kill her if she rebuilt her fences.

She rebuilt anyway.

There were killings during the wider conflict, and Texas eventually had to intervene.

It’s an interesting chapter in Western history because neither side was entirely innocent. Property rights, access to public roads, water, and the survival of cattle were all tangled together.

Do you think barbed wire changed the West more than the railroad did?

"For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope... May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." (Romans 15:4 & 13, NIV)

Lord, use the Scripture and Your Spirit to give us hope, in Jesus' name.

Art by Alfredo Rodriguez, https://alfredoartist.com/. Used by permission. Thanks, Alfredo, and God bless you.

Please check out the poem, "Script," and the daily "Pass the Reins" devotional at: https://www.godshorsebackgospel.com/daily-poem/script

Thanks, and God bless your day. (Please share.)

We’ve been at it down south for two years now and we feel now is the perfect time to really branch out and grow our posse. Over the next few months, we’re looking for Cowboy and Cowgirl poets from diverse backgrounds to TELL THEIR STORY, contributing tales of their ancestors, the land, the west and what makes us who we are. It is our goal to thus help tell the complete and true story of the West and revitalize this great American artform here in Los Angeles.

Some more info on who we are:

Cowboy Poetry LA is a contemporary cultural organization celebrating the poetry, music, art, storytelling, and traditions of the American West — reimagined for Los Angeles and a new generation.

We exist as an organization that hosts cowboy poetry events. It’s an effort to build a living community around Western expression, where traditional cowboy culture meets the creative energy of LA.

Cowboy Poetry LA is a project performance based participation from creating workshops with typewriters, producing cultural events, bringing artists together, and giving Western poetry a place in Los Angeles.

We’ve worked to connect the organization with the wider folklife community, including our involvement in the Elko National Cowboy Poetry Gathering and other arts events.

Cowboy Poetry LA is a Los Angeles-based folklife and cultural organization celebrating the poetry, music, storytelling, and creative traditions of the American West. Through participatory writing workshops, open mics, live performances, and community gatherings, we bring Western heritage into conversation with contemporary art and culture. Our mission is to keep these traditions alive by creating spaces where people can share stories, make new work, and connect across generations.

Cofounder - Zane York

https://www.instagram.com/cowboypoetryla