Rodeo Queen Turned Bestselling Novelist

I was lucky to grow up in rural Iowa where one of the nation's leading & oldest rodeos has been held every Labor Day weekend for 87 years. My family history with the Dayton Rodeo and my experience with horses inspired my bestselling debut novel, BLOOD TO RUBIES.

For most Americans, the Labor Day weekend is a time for picnics, barbecues, and get-togethers before summer ends and school begins. But, for me, it means something completely different: four days of the annual Dayton, Iowa, Rodeo! I grew up in rural north central Iowa. My home town of Dayton, Iowa, at the time population 500, was home to one of the nation's leading rodeos. And also one of the nation's oldest.

My childhood horse, Sundance, was my pride and joy. He was a celebrity among all the children in town. When he died, at the ripe old age of 30, our smaltown newspaper ran his obituary. 💔💙

I grew up with horses and as an Iowa farm girl, working on farms to board my horse Sundance, mucking out stalls, feeding cattle, farrowing pigs, walking beans. detasseling corn, baling hay, and driving tractors. I was a hardcore cowgirl who always rode my horse, Sundance, bareback and also trained green horses (I don't like to call it "broke"). I was a member of the Dayton Wrangler's Club and Dayton Rodeo Queen in 1972 (yep! that's right––52 years ago!) when our rodeo was National Rodeo of the Year.

THREE GENERATIONS OF MY FAMILY ARE ROUGH RIDERS!

My middle sister, Sue (far right), followed my rodeo footsteps by participating in the first All-Women Ride Horse Race in the Dayton Rodeo. Rough stuff and very dangerous! Sue's sons and grandsons (son Marshall, middle, grandson Maverick, 2nd from left and Xander, 2nd from right all became veteran wild horse race champions, as did their dad, Robin, far left. FYI, my sister Sue is one tough woman! She was also the arm-wrestling champion in Iowa!💪❤️

My two nephews (far left), Sue's sons Marshall (left) and Michael, won seven championships at the Dayton rodeo. Now Marshall's sons, Xander and Maverick, are following in their dad's footsteps, or rather.... cowboy boots! My grand-nephew, Xander (above far right), graduated last year from high school and is already a rodeo veteran and is now a professional bronc rider. Xander holds the Dayton Rodeo record for the youngest person to win the Wild Horse Race at the Dayton Rodeo.

The Dayton [Iowa] Rodeo is one of the oldest rodeos in the U.S. and was established in 1937 by three Dayton residents (shown below in inset). One of them, Allen Porter (shown below. left), was a real-life cowboy of legendary lore. He worked on ranches out west for much of his youth. He was very tall and handsome, sort of the cowboy version of Rhett Butler. And he was a trick roper and veteran rodeo rider.

Later in his life, Allen became the town ferrier. He shoed my horse Sundance many times. He put carrots in his back pockets and Sundance would eat them while he worked on his hooves. Allen lived to be 98 and most likely would have made it to 100, had a house fire not taken his life. He was not only a true cowboy, but a true gentleman.

I have an another interesting and heartbreaking anecdote to relate about Allen and his cowboy life: All through high school, aside from working on farms to board my horse, I also worked at the local care home on the weekends to save for college. One patient there I cared for was named Velda Porter. She was an old woman then, but still had jet black hair. By her bedside, she had an old black and white photograph of herself and Allen on horses. They were a young married couple, Hollywood gorgeous, like Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler. Velda was a very accomplished horsewoman, too. The story was that she has half Sioux Indian.

Probably not long after that photograph was taken in her early 20s, she was thrown by a horse and suffered very serious brain damage that left her physically incapacitated and childlike. She had been in a care home for 35 years. I was deeply affected by that experience, as she had been the first Dayton rodeo queen in 1937. I cared for her while I was Rodeo Queen decades later. It was one of those experiences from my childhood that stuck with me and inspired me to write my novel much later.

Postscript:

My debut novel, BLOOD TO RUBIES was published less than a year ago.

You can read reviews, a synopsis, and order the book at this Amazon link:

https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Rubies-Deborah-Hufford-ebook/dp/B0CDNNHX2G/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

"Rodeo Queen Turned Bestselling Novelist" was first published on Facebook and NotesfromtheFrontier.com on September 2, 2024.

If you enjoyed this post, see also this related post:

• The Saga of Jackson Sundown, Nez Perce National Rodeo Champion & Nephew of Chief Joseph

https://www.notesfromthefrontier.com/post/the-saga-of-jackson-sundown

©2024 NOTES FROM THE FRONTIER