EVENTS
Rodeo Producer
Everett Colborn, “King of the Big Time Rodeos,” was the sport’s most successful producer-director. Born on an Idaho ranch in 1892, he grew up on the range and broke into rodeo as a roper during the 1920s.
A natural leader, Colborn soon went into business. He furnished bucking horses for ranch roundups and rodeos, including C. B. Irwin’s show. In the late 1920s he began producing Irwin’s War Bonnet Round-Up.
In 1931 Everett Colborn leased a carload of rough stock to the producer of the Madison Square Garden rodeo and also served as judge and arena director. For the next 22 years he directed the show at the Garden. In the 1930s he teamed with other producers and expanded to serve the national rodeo circuit. Colborn and his associates owned the infamous bucker Hell’s Angel.
Everett Colborn’s Lightning C Ranch near Dublin, Texas, was the world’s only operation devoted entirely to breeding and raising rodeo stock. Colborn retired in 1960 to his ranch, where he died in 1985.
