Bay Area rodeo is changing as cowgirls are taking the reins

By Itay Hod

Just east of San Francisco, there’s a stretch of California where cowboys have ruled for generations. Here, the day begins the way it always has: same boots, same spurs, same sky full of dust.

Except today, this isn’t your typical cowboy. In fact, this isn’t a boy at all.

“It’s freedom to me,” said Jillian Murray.

Murray is a fifth-generation rancher and a professional breakaway roper, a rodeo event defined by speed and snap, where the clock stops the instant the rope breaks free.

With her mom, Dora, on the stopwatch and her dad, Jeff, at the gate, she practiced until precision feels like instinct, chasing the fractions of a second that separate the good from the great.

Her personal best, 1.8 seconds, was fast enough to make her the number two breakaway rookie woman athlete on the California rodeo circuit.

“You’d be shocked,” she said with a laugh. “A lot of girls can rope better than the guys.”

As part of a new wave of cowgirls, Murray isn’t just breaking horses. She’s breaking barriers.

“I think that we feel that we have something to prove, and we want to prove it,” Murray said.

With the success of shows from “Yellowstone” to “Landman”, rodeos are riding high.

Allison Keaney, the first female CEO of the Cow Palace, one of California’s biggest rodeo venues, said ticket sales jumped 61% this year, and women’s rodeo, once an afterthought, is now ropin’ in fans fast.

“You see more money being put into women’s events. You see more advocacy for women’s events,” Keaney said.

As for Murray, she’s now setting her sights on this year’s California Circuit Finals in December.

“It’s really fun, it’s exciting, it’s competitive, and a lot of women are really good at it,” she said.