Welcome to the blog about our podcast “This Week in the West.” We’ll share the show’s scripts on our blog each week. If you want to listen, click above, subscribe on your favorite podcast app or check back here every Monday.
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Howdy folks, it’s the second week of October 2025, and welcome to This Week in The West.
I’m Seth Spillman, broadcasting from the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.
On this podcast, we share stories of the people and events that shaped the history, art and culture of the American West—and those still shaping it today.
There you are, sitting in the grandstands of a rodeo, on the edge of your seat, waiting for the chute gate to explode open and a cowboy to be hanging on tight to a wild bronc or bull.
But what if the bull was just like “meh.”
Fortunately, that doesn’t happen. Bulls and broncs are bred to buck. They have their own fans. They’re pampered, valuable and star athletes in their own right. And that’s thanks to stock contractors like Reg Kesler, whom we remember this week, the week of his birth, October 16, 1919.
Kesler was born in Alberta, Canada. He grew up around cowboys and ranch life, which meant he didn’t have much fear when he climbed on a steer at the Raymond Stampede, testing his grit in front of a hometown crowd.
He was hooked on rodeo. He was eventually competing full-time, known for trying his hand at all five major rodeo events of the time: saddle bronc riding, bareback riding, bull riding, tie-down roping and steer decorating, which was a forerunner to steer wrestling. But it didn’t stop there: Wild cow milking, wild horse racing, serving as an outrider in chuckwagon races, and even working as a pickup man. Kesler did it all.
But it was the roughstock events where Kesler really stood out. Six times, he ranked in the top four of the Canadian standings in bronc and bareback riding. In 1948, he was the Canadian All-Around Champion. He would go on to win the Canadian All-Around title two more times, in 1951 and 1953, and was twice crowned All-Around champion at the Calgary Stampede.
But Kesler was also watching the business side of rodeo. The sport was growing. Crowds were bigger, events were getting more organized, and cowboys were hungry for good stock. They wanted animals that would test their skill and thrill the fans. The old days of rounding up whatever local broncs or steers happened to be handy were giving way to a new model: professional stock contractors.
By the 1950s, Kesler had built his own string of roughstock, raising bucking horses and bulls raised and selected for their athleticism, unpredictability and power.
He supplied animals across Canada and the United States. By the 1960s, he had retired to focus entirely on stock contracting and rodeo production.
He was inducted into both the ProRodeo Hall of Fame and the National Rodeo Hall of Fame here at The Cowboy as much for his stock contracting as for any competitions he won.
The importance of stock contracting is still central to the sport of rodeo. Today’s stock contractors are breeders, ranchers, veterinarians, trainers and showmen all rolled into one. The best bucking stock is bred for generations, selected for strength, stamina, and that wild unpredictability that makes fans leap out of their seats.
A top bucking bull can sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Kesler helped create this essential part of the sport. His name is connected to the likes of Cotton Rosser, Doc Sorensen and the Beutler Family as the greats who shaped how rodeo animals are bred, cared for and presented to the public.
Kesler died on May 16, 2001, in an auto accident near his home outside of Raymond, Alberta.
Said his son Greg following his death: “The way Dad did things was the old hard way. He was the old rancher type. Either you made it or you didn’t.”
And with that, we’ve bucked our way to the end of another episode of “This Week in the West.”
Our show is produced by Chase Spivey and written by Mike Koehler.
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We leave you today with the words of legendary rodeo announcer Bob Tallman: “(Reg) is everything the rodeo business is all about. He’s a founding father and probably the least hypocritical human being I ever met in my life. If you knew how to deal with him, he was a gentle giant. That’s the way cowboy rules are. Good guys do win first.”
Much obliged for listening, and remember, come Find Your West at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.
