10/16/2026
Thank you True Rodeo Nation for the second spotlight!
When the very first National Finals Rodeo kicked off in Dallas in 1959, Bob Barnes brought the bucking stock. When he died in 2013, he’d supplied stock for all 55 of them. In the 1950s, the farthest rodeo from his family ranch in Peterson, Iowa, was 350 miles away.
Bob Barnes was born April 19, 1929, in Cherokee, Iowa, and started out as a teenage amateur ba****ck rider. In 1950, he and his sister Marge decided to try producing rodeos. By 1953, they hit the road with a full string of stock, and the Barnes Rodeo Company was on its way. He became a PRCA stock contractor in 1951.
Then he started building the Midwest’s rodeo calendar one town at a time. In 1954, he helped get the first Spooner Rodeo in Wisconsin off the ground, producing it and competing in it. He went on to produce every Spooner Rodeo until his death in 2013. The company has produced the PRCA rodeos in Buffalo, Minnesota, and Spooner for more than 50 years each, and helped establish the Cherokee PRCA Rodeo in Iowa. Barnes was at the forefront when rodeo developed the regional circuit system for contestants.
Then came the honor few contractors can claim. Barnes and Harry Vold are the only two stock contractors to supply stock for every National Finals Rodeo since it began in 1959. His horses made history too. Crystal Springs was the 1977 Bucking Horse of the Year, and Boy Ballou was the NFR Ba****ck Bronc of the Year in 1989, 1990, 1991, and 1993.
Then he built a reputation for doing things right. Known throughout the sport as “the Colonel,” Barnes prided himself on producing what he advertised, a top professional rodeo. “We are to rodeo what Cadillac is to cars,” he once told a reporter. He said the thing he enjoyed most about rodeo was seeing the results when top stock was matched against the better cowboy. He served on the PRCA Board of Directors and the National Finals Rodeo Committee for many years.
Then he passed it down. His wife Donita, who received the Rodeo Historical Society’s Tad Lucas Award in 2010, was by his side. Their children Marty, Mitzi, and John carry the business on under the Barnes banner and their own firm, MJM Rodeo. John serves on the PRCA board and is livestock superintendent at the Wrangler NFR.
PRCA Stock Contractor of the Year in 1984. Inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 1994 and the National Rodeo Hall of Fame in 2010. Bob Barnes died November 23, 2013, at 84, in Iowa. His company is the longest-running individually owned stock contracting firm in the country.
A ranch where the nearest big rodeo was 350 miles away. Fifty-five National Finals in a row. Bob Barnes made sure the Midwest had a place in rodeo history, and the Rafter B Bar brand is still on it.
Bob Barnes 🤠🐴🏆
