Rocker Steiner<\/a>, Kade Berry, Jessie Everett, Hadley Thompson, Tyke Kipp, Gus Gaillard, Wacey Schalla, and Wyatt Jurney could be found with ropes, stick horses, and craft supplies filling their callused hands, jumping between interactive stations to help patients take a swing at roping, barrel racing, goat tying, and bull riding \u2014 just in a setting where said bulls are pumped full of air opposed to red hot rage and killer instincts.<\/p>\nWhile the rodeo athletes weren\u2019t awarded any $100,000 checks or shiny buckles for 90-point rides, the act of bringing a piece of rodeo and Western culture to the hospital\u2019s patients and their families proved as rewarding as a glistening accolade.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cLike anybody, you can be ignorant to the fact that there\u2019s kids that don\u2019t get to live the life that you live,\u201d Rocker Steiner, 2025 Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association\u2019s (PRCA) Bareback Riding World Champion, says. \u201cI went to a hospital in Nevada a couple years ago and got to see some kids, and it opened my mind to how there\u2019s a lot of kids in this world that don\u2019t get to wake up and see sunshine like I did. Anything I can do to come help make the kids a little happier, I\u2019ll do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Teton Ridge and The American Rodeo launched the Mini Rodeo to give Cook Children\u2019s Hospital patients front-row interaction with the professional rodeo athletes of the big screen. Spearheaded by Jenna Morr, Teton Ridge senior director of content marketing and athlete relations, the inception of the event traces back to the 22-year-old million-dollar cowboy himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe partnered with Cook Children\u2019s Hospital for the first time in 2025 when Rocker won the American,\u201d Morr says. \u201cWe helped facilitate his donation to the hospital after the win, and while we were here for that visit, we started talking to them about some ideas of bringing our cowboys and cowgirls, and really the Western lifestyle, into the hospital through experiences for their patients.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite a family lineage that includes multiple gold buckles, Steiner says it\u2019s difficult to define what it means to be a cowboy. Riding broncs, earning scores, and cashing checks does not tell the whole story.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been so blessed from childhood,\u201d Steiner says. \u201cI grew up with great parents, and I was always a healthy kid. I got the privilege of rodeoing and playing sports, and many of these kids don\u2019t get to do that. But having the heart of a cowboy, whether you ride in a rodeo event or not, is never quitting, and that\u2019s something that these kids know and experience. I think it\u2019ll stick with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alongside Steiner \u2014 among the blowup bulls and bronc saddles dotting the floor of Cook\u2019s atrium \u2014 was Wacey Schalla, the cowboy who finished fifth in the 2025 PRCA bareback riding world standings.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As professional rodeo athletes, chatting with fans is part of the job description. While Steiner and Schalla get their fair share of fan interaction throughout the ProRodeo season, events like the Mini Rodeo provide a different type of authentic connection.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good to see how happy these kids are at possibly the lowest point in their life. To see the joy that us cowboys bring into this is pretty cool,\u201d Schalla says. \u201cThrough this, they get to do what they see on TV, and we just get to be a part of that \u2014 it\u2019s something that they don\u2019t get to do every day like we do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Facilitating this magical step out of the TV screen was an effort of many partners, including contributions from Resistol\u2019s Cowboys Who Care Foundation, Smarty, Cactus Ropes, and the Cowboy Channel, which gifted hats, ropes, and sweatshirts, respectively, to the kids \u2014 who are now equipped to wrangle some cattle themselves.<\/p>\n
The main frontliners for the event were Teton Ridge and the American Rodeo, both major representation outlets for the sport of rodeo in their own right.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Teton Ridge is the largest media company within the Western sports and entertainment precinct. The multi-platformed operation climbed the ladder quickly and acquired the major media assets of the Cowboy Channel, Cowgirl Channel, and rights to the the American Rodeo \u2014 the world\u2019s richest single-day rodeo at AT&T Stadium \u2014 within the last several years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With the joined headquarters of Teton Ridge and its holdings conveniently tucked into Fort Worth, conversations of another Mini Rodeo at Cook Children\u2019s Hospital are already underway for when these athletes return to town for the week of the 2026 American Rodeo in May.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And with a booming media industry tethered tightly to events like the American Rodeo, the company feels it\u2019s important to give back to the communities that welcome and embrace the rodeos and athletes that come to town.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so inspiring for us to bring smiles to these patients\u2019 faces and have the opportunity for these athletes to see that they make an impact,\u201d Morr says. \u201cYou can get wrapped up in going from city to city, horse to horse, and event to event, and this is a great opportunity for them to get to come out and engage with fans and patients in a meaningful way that really leaves them with something that\u2019s inspiring, too.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Among these titled professional cowgirls and cowboys on the receiving end of an opportunity to make an impact, there was also a queen.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While Abigail Johnson, Miss Rodeo Texas Teen 2025, has been fortunate to connect with many individuals across the state throughout her reign of royalty, she said events like the Mini Rodeo are the ones she finds most fulfilling.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeeing a competitor outside of the arena makes them feel more human,\u201d Johnson says. \u201cAnd if I can give back, help in any way, and make somebody smile \u2014 no matter how old they are, but especially a child \u2014 that\u2019s the whole point.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the eyes of not just Johnson, but all the bronc riders, barrel racers, and ropers alike, a cowboy has much to give beyond entertainment itself \u2014 and it might just make them tougher in the process.<\/p>\n
\u201cThrough this, they see how tough these cowboys and cowgirls are, and I think they take a lot from that,\u201d Johnson says. \u201cIt\u2019s inspiring, watching how these kids fight every single day and how strong they are. It makes me feel that I can be strong for them, too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Fort Worth, the sight of bronc riders, barrel racers, breakaway ropers, and steer wrestlers occupying the same…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[14724,116,118,117,6795,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-157491","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-cook-children","9":"tag-fort-worth","10":"tag-fort-worth-headlines","11":"tag-fort-worth-news","12":"tag-rodeo","13":"tag-top-story"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}