Women buck trend, look to grow rodeo sport of ranch bronc riding

CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Sophia Bunney launched the first time she tried ranch bronc riding, landing “quite a ways away from the horse.”

“I’m very stubborn and I don’t like being defeated,” said the 18-year-old from Cessford, Alberta.

In other words, the teenager was hooked on a sport that pits women against bucking horses for eight seconds.

“I always kind of wanted to hop on a bronc,” Bunney told the Canadian Press. “In Grade 3, we did ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’ and I said I wanted to be a female bronc rider.”

Unlike saddle bronco riding, a rodeo mainstay, ranch bronc uses a regular western saddle — not a specialized one — and riders hang on with two hands instead of one. A hand is on a rein and the other on a strap wrapped around the saddle horn.

Pearl Kersey, who won the Canadian women’s ranch bronc title over the weekend in Ponoka, Alberta., is president of Women’s Ranch Bronc Canada and teaches it at clinics.

“I’ve got teenagers, 20-year-olds, 30-year-olds and this year a woman in her 50s. I was like, ‘You sure?’” Kersey said. “She doesn’t want to compete. She wants to try it before she gets too old. We have bucking machines. She doesn’t necessarily need to get on a horse. They can go through all the drills and the bucking machine, and if they’re comfortable enough, they can get on a horse.”

It took a while for 19-year-old Blayne Bedard, who grew up cow riding in the Canadian Girls Rodeo Association, to master keeping her feet forward toward the horse’s shoulders.

“If they come back, I’m like a pendulum and I just go head over teakettle,” Bedard said. “For the longest time, that was my biggest problem with riding ranch bronc and why I kept bucking off was because my feet weren’t moving and they’d come behind me and I’d get lawn-darted right away.”

She’s improved to the point where Bedard has competed in the last two Canadian championships.

“I like the look of it, too,” Bedard said. “You get cool pictures.”

One of the lessons Bedard picked up at a Kersey clinic had nothing to do with riding form — and everything to do with what goes inside a boot.

“I put baby powder in my boots every time before I ride, and I wear my mom’s boots that are a size too big for me, because if you get your foot stuck in a stirrup -- which I’ve had a few times -- you need your boot to be able to come off so you’re not being dragged by the horse,” she said.

Women’s ranch bronc isn’t part of the $2.1 million Calgary Stampede starting Friday, but women’s breakaway roping will debut at the 10-day rodeo. Breakaway and barrel racing are the two women’s events on a program that also features men’s bull riding, saddle bronc, bareback, steer wrestling and tie-down roping.

The Ponoka Stampede adding women’s ranch bronc to its lineup in 2022 was a big step forward, Kersey said. Inclusion in the Calgary Stampede would be another milestone.

“The ultimate is the same with girls in breakaway roping, which is getting into pro rodeos because that’s when you get the big money,” she said. “We’re way bigger with the added money than we were, but it takes time. ... It takes a while to get contestant numbers up.”

Kersey, 36, has qualified for the world finals July 19-20 in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where she won in 2019 and has twice finished second. Kersey intends to retire from competition after this year, but continue teaching.

One of her students, Calgary’s Emma Eastwood, picked it up quickly thanks to years of riding horses and a stint as an amateur jockey. She attended Kersey’s clinics last fall and this spring, and won an event in just her third time competing.

“It is difficult to try and think through your ride and hang on through all that adrenaline,” said the 27-year-old massage therapist. “Things kind of get a little blurry, and it’s hard to process everything going on so quickly.”

Rodeo bucking events have traditionally been the domain of men. Kersey, Eastwood and Bedard say the cowboys have been welcoming, though Bunney’s experience has been mixed. Kersey said she has heard from many.

“Women have come up to me and said, ‘Thank you for doing what you’re doing.’ They might not go into ranch broncs, but it just gave them the power in themselves to go pursue something that they wanted that they didn’t think they could because they were women,” Kersey said. “Other girls tell me, ‘I saw you ride at Ponoka,’ and they’re like ‘I want to try it.’ Sometimes it’s a confidence-booster thing. Sometimes they want to see if they’ll like it and some are like ‘Yeah, I’m doing this.’”

Emma Eastwood, from Lacombe, Alberta, exits the chute as she competes in women's ranch bronc during rodeo action in Crossfield, Alberta, Saturday, June 14, 2025. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP)

Courtney Beverly, from Winfield, Alberta, holds her nine month old daughter Rowelly-Dee Phillips as the rest of her family gather to support her in women's ranch bronc during rodeo action in Crossfield, Alberta, Saturday, June 14, 2025. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP)

Courtney Beverly, from Winfield, Alberta, saddles her horse in the chutes before competing in women's ranch bronc during rodeo action in Crossfield, Alberta, Saturday, June 14, 2025. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP)

Emma Eastwood, of Calgary, visualizes her ride before competing in women's ranch bronc during rodeo action in Crossfield, Alberta, Saturday, June 14, 2025. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP)

Courtney Beverly, from Winfield, Alberta, prepares to bridle her horse in the chutes before competing in women's ranch bronc during rodeo action in Crossfield, Alberta, Saturday, June 14, 2025. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP)

Victoria Ruf, of Rocky View County, Alberta, hits the ground after her ride in women's ranch bronc during rodeo action in Crossfield, Alberta, Saturday, June 14, 2025. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP)

Emma Eastwood, from Lacombe, Alberta, stretches before competing in women's ranch bronc during rodeo action in Crossfield, Alberta, Saturday, June 14, 2025. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.

Iran had no immediate reaction to the news, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.

Meanwhile Monday, Iran called for pro-government demonstrators to head to the streets in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”

Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”

Trump said that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.

“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”

He added: “The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate.”

Iran through country's parliamentary speaker warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.

More than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces.

With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.

Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Online videos purported to show more demonstrations Sunday night into Monday, with a Tehran official acknowledging them in state media.

In Tehran, a witness told the AP that the streets of the capital empty at the sunset call to prayers each night. By the Isha, or nighttime prayer, the streets are deserted.

Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”

Another text, which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.

“Dear parents, in view of the enemy’s plan to increase the level of naked violence and the decision to kill people, ... refrain from being on the streets and gathering in places involved in violence, and inform your children about the consequences of cooperating with terrorist mercenaries, which is an example of treason against the country,” the text warned.

The witness spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.

The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.

Nikhinson reported from aboard Air Force One.

In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran shows protesters taking to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Jan. 10, 2026. (UGC via AP)