[ “I will always have bucking horses in my life. I can’t imagine my life without them.” ]
“Rodeo is my passion,” said Kirsten Vold, who has continued her father’s (Harry Vold) legacy as a stock contractor. “Rodeo has fed me, given me a college education, and allowed me to be part of a lot of firsts – from a young PRCA cowboy to a young horse. To watch a bucking horse go from when you saw them buck for the first time to being an experienced veteran where every cowboy knows them – that brings me great joy.”
The youngest of six children, Kirsten Vold was born in 1973 and started taking over the Vold Rodeo Company when she was 25 years old. She spent her young years traveling with her parents, Harry and Karen Vold, to all corners of the US and Canada producing and providing stock for rodeos. “I always worked for the company growing up. I had a tutor and didn’t attend public school until high school.” When her parents were traveling, the people working at the ranch, looked after her. The school bus came to the red gate at the end of the ranch, she drove the feed truck up to the gate, and rode the bus an hour and 15 minutes each way. In the beginning it was fun, because I got to sit in the back row with my friend.”
Kirsten was sure she wanted to be a lawyer. “I watched LA law and that was the life I wanted.” She went to the University of Southern Colorado, graduating in 1996 with a BA in Communications. “After graduation, I knew I wanted to do something with rodeo, but at the corporate level. I didn’t enjoy being in an office and I was ready to go back to the ranch.” She has no regrets about her stint in the bright lights. “I got to do a lot of things with that – I flew all over the place – I was 23 and very social. I had a great time but I came to the realization that I missed the hands-on, grass roots aspect of rodeo.”
Harry Vold was having a tough time finding someone to take hold and run things. He had foremen in the past, but he didn’t really have anyone to take that job over at the time and run it. “He was looking for a change and so was I; the timing was right.”
Harry had built the company from scratch and over the past 60 years, the Vold name has become synonymous with rodeo. “It’s very important to me to uphold what he started. We’ve got a reputation of quality, professionalism and ethics.” She does a few things differently than her dad; she doesn’t travel as much as he did and she has incorporated more time in the chutes for the stock. Kirsten stopped going south for winter rodeos, preferring to be home. “I’ll never be sad to be home.” She lives a stone’s throw from her mom, Karen Vold, who is still involved in her church, trick riding clinics, and spending time in her kitchen preparing some of the recipes in her cookbooks. Kirsten travels solid from June until September, creating a string of great rodeos that have been part of the Vold name for years. She does a few spring, fall, and winter rodeos, but is careful to pencil out each trip to be profitable. “The events I have now, I’m lucky to have. I work with great people, and we have been with them multiple years and the people are amazing.”
She keeps her stock close to home to handle and see them every day. “From the time we wean them, we keep them up close, and we feed them daily until they are yearlings.” The young stock runs through the chutes several times, learning by the time they are five years old that the chute isn’t a scary place to be. “It’s different from how my dad did things; the horses were five before they got bucked and handled for the first time.”
Kirsten has been married twice and admits that her lack of free time doesn’t help. “The majority of my failed relationships are because I didn’t have enough time to devote to the relationship.” She admires couples in the rodeo industry that make it work.
For the first time since the inception of the NFR 65 years ago, the Vold Rodeo Company did not have bucking stock selected to go to the 2023 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo.
“It makes me focus on doing a better job in 2024.”
In order to get stock to the NFR, contestants pick the animals from the animals that stock contractors nominate – each animal must make 8 trips in a year to be eligible. The top 15 riders select the final animals. “I don’t have any il will, it’s a drawing contest on our end too – the animal must draw the right cowboy at the right time.”
Kirsten has had her time to shine in the past, raising a stud, Painted Valley. “Painted Valley was one that I raised myself and he was actually mine. He was the first I put my brand on and was my own. He was very dear to my heart. I raised him in my back yard and he was very gentle.” The stud was selected to six Wrangler National Finals Rodeos, and was voted best Saddle Bronc Horse of the WNFR in 2009 and in 2010 Painted Valley was named PRCA Saddle Horse of the Year.
“If you ask me the number one reason why I do what I do, it’s because of the animals,” she said. “I love working with animals.” Life has been very good to me; not the way I planned, it but that’s not a bad thing. You look back in your 20s and think you know, but you realize in your 40s that you are what you are and you accept life as it is. I’m trying new things, but I’m more self-accepting – accepting failure and success. I’m a lot more chilled out now than I was 20 years ago.”
