Red Bull Rancher Strong

Photo courtesy of Red Bull Media House

On Saturday June 7th, rodeo athletes, ranchers, and top CrossFit athletes took over the historic Cowtown Coliseum for a one-of-a-kind fitness competition with a ranch themed obstacle course designed by American Ninja Warrior’s Lance Pekus. 70 athletes tested themselves through multiple rounds of a 7 part obstacle course that was both mentally and physically grueling.

Photo courtesy of Red Bull Media House

Competitors began the course getting off the tower via a set of monkey bars. From there they had to move sand bags to and from a sled mimicking real life ranch work of moving hay and feed bags to livestock. After this section came the part that surprisingly seem to be the most challenging for many. It wasn't the climbing over the fence and throwing the tire over but the over/under logs that many athletes struggled with. (Despite many of the rancher and rodeo athletes competing in cowboy hat, jeans, and boots there were no wardrobe malfunctions and we need y'all to spill the tea on which jean you were wearing.) This section seemed slow down a few of the athletes that found getting up over the higher logs a bit more difficult than anticipated. Once past the over/under logs, there was another challenging obstacle of getting across the small uneven stepping logs, which tested balance under speed and pressure. This was another one of the obstacles that seem to trip up a few athletes being more difficult than initially expected. After successfully navigating this part of the course, competitors scrambled up hay bails to ring a bell then hurried down to mount a saddle from which they had to pull a sled to them with a thick rope. And in the final sections, competitors had to pick up and place a ladder against the tower to scale and ring the buzzer before time ran out.

After several qualifier rounds, quarter, semi, and a final round the winners were crowded: Thomas van Tonder, a world-renowned OCR athlete and official Red Bull Athlete from South Africa, and Arielle Loewen, a decorated CrossFit competitor based in Midland, Texas.