WYOMING COWBOY

The last few weeks I have been posting images of monument competition and commissions I have lost and one’s I have won. It was a great honor to do a sculpture for my home state and the symbol of Wyoming, Steamboat. WYOMING COWBOY (2013) Monumental Bronze, 16’ x 11’ x 5’ Wyoming Cowboy is located at the entrance to the University of Wyoming’s Marian H. Rochelle Gateway Center in Laramie. The silhouette of a cowboy riding a bucking horse has long been the symbol of the state of Wyoming. The cowboy astride a bucking horse represents the toughness, pride, spirit, and independence of the people, animals, and landscapes of Wyoming. My sculpture has been modeled after the great bucking horse, Steamboat. This famous bucker, bred in Wyoming, was voted Worst Bucking Horse of the Year at the Cheyenne Frontier Days celebration in 1906 and 1907. Steamboat was jet black with three white socks and had a powerful build. When he was a colt, Steamboat sustained a broken bone in his nose that caused him to make a whistling sound when he bucked, and that is why the cowboys gave him the name “Steamboat.” The old-time cowboys said the horse would buck his heart out and wouldn’t quit.
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