The rodeo season is year-round for Cindy DeLancey and her family, owners of the Hell on Wheels Rodeo Co. of Cheyenne, Wyoming.
They held a winter saddle bronc futurity in February, and now as spring hovers on the horizon, their Corriente cows are nearly ready to calve. These cows are prized for their small size and are used almost exclusively as rodeo stock.
The calving season for event cattle is a little bit different than that of a traditional commercial beef herd. The rodeos are in June so the family plan for their calving to start in late April and early May to make sure that the calves are the right size for the tie-down ropers.
“We'll start seeing some babies here soon,” DeLancey said. “We have a very special bond with our four-legged family members.”
The mamas are kept in a pasture at the home ranch and are checked daily to make sure their needs are met.
“Our tagline is ‘raised with love’,” DeLancey said. “It is very important to us that our animals are used to human contact and not fearful of us.”
This same love they show to their animals, they also show to their community. They had always planned to produce their own rodeo but that day came sooner than they expected.
It Started With COVID
In 2020, when Cheyenne Frontier Days had to cancel because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the solution was to hold a smaller rodeo.
The DeLanceys had talked about hosting an open rodeo for years with Visit Cheyenne. As a result of these conversations, during this crisis they were asked by local tourism leaders to help their community by producing a rodeo.
The catch? They had two weeks to put the entire event together.
They succeeded and their first rodeo was a huge success. Six summers later, their open rodeos are still being held at the Laramie County’s Event Center at Archer beginning June 6, leading up to Cheyenne Frontier Days. Tickets will be on sale beginning on April Fool’s Day, although the six rodeos will be no joke, but lots of fun.
“It celebrates our heritage, and it keeps our legacy moving forward,” Domenic Bravo, President of Visit Cheyenne, told Cowboy State Daily. “The rodeos define who we are, what we do and how we move forward in Wyoming.”
Even the name of the DeLancey’s rodeo company honors the rich Western past. “Hell on Wheels” is Cheyenne's nickname dating back to the 1860s when the town earned the moniker due to its rough and lawless nature as a booming railroad construction town.
As an open rodeo, anybody can enter. Many big names in rodeo have competed alongside of local contestants at these events.
“You might be roping with your neighbor, or you might be roping with the number two or number three team roper in the world that happens to be passing through Cheyenne,” DeLancey said. “It's just so much fun just to hear the crowd cheer for the locals as well as the professionals.”
Bravo has even seen a change in visitation to Cheyenne as folks have begun planning their trips around the Hell on Wheels open rodeos.
Corriente cattle, owned by the DeLancey family and used as cattle stock for the Hell on Wheels Rodeo in Cheyenne. (Courtesy Raegen DeLancey) 
Trace Travnicek receiving his buckle for being the 2024 series champion tie down roper at the Hell on Wheels Rodeo in Cheyenne. This is the second time he’s won this accolade. (Courtesy Raegen DeLancey) 
Raegen DeLancey, won the 2024 series end breakaway title at the Hell on Wheels Rodeo in Cheyenne. She is Cindy’s daughter, and arena Director at the Hell on Wheels Rodeos. (Courtesy Raegen DeLancey)
Local Stock
To prepare for the rodeos is a juggling act of many parts. One of the most important is finding the right stock, and DeLancey keeps it all local, sourcing her animals from her own ranch and from others in Wyoming and across the border in Colorado.
The roping cattle she raises have also become a very valuable commodity with the recent closures of the Mexican border due to screwworm, a highly destructive parasite that was found in our neighboring country.
“We're breeding our Corriente for excellence,” DeLancey said. “We want to put forth stock that is conducive for the cowboys and cowgirls to win on.”
The calves from last year are used as breakaway calves and then they become team roping steers. After that, the heifers go back into the herd and are used for breeding.
“It’s great to use stock that we know how they're cared for,” DeLancey said.
She also works with Royce and J.D. Ford of Colorado for their bucking stock. Their bull contractors are Wyomingites Dallas Willis and Rob Bunton.
“People just love that the bulls that they're getting to watch buck were raised right here in Laramie County on the prairie,” she said. “The bulls are local celebrities that give the cowboys a run for their money.”
Rodeo Lives On In Wyoming
DeLancey said that these open rodeos are about experiencing Wyoming’s custom and the western way of life.
To make sure the experience is complete, a chuckwagon supper is offered for everyone before the rodeo. VIPs are taken behind the scenes to meet contestants and have their pictures taken with the horses.
For those that are competing in the open rodeo, DeLancey said that it is about confidence building and giving people a chance to compete on a local level before going professional.
“Many of our folks that have entered, even our pickup men and announcers, have gone on to do some really cool things,” DeLancey said. “It's really fun to get to watch our contestants go on to some of the bigger rodeos that you see on the Cowboy Channel.”
According to Bravo, everything about the rodeo celebrates the Western way of life.
“Even though it's a sport, it's also a part of their daily lives,” he said. “It's one of those things that embodies Wyoming.”
It is a lot of work to put on a successful rodeo, but it is something that the DeLancey family truly enjoys.
“We just really are so blessed to get to live our passion,” DeLancey said.
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
