Rodeo bullfighter program serves as first in YGM’s ranching speaker series
Yellowstone Gateway Museum has announced its fall speaker series, ‘A Ranching Roundup: Story & Song.’ The first program, “Bulls, Bruises & Brotherhood: Stories of a Rodeo Bullfighter,” will take place Wednesday, October 3rd. Veteran bullfighter Raymond Ansotegui will present. The free programs are held at Downtown Livingston’s Park Photo, 115 S Main St., beginning at 7pm.
Raymond will give a presentation about the art of working with bulls in the rodeo arena in order to protect bull riders. He will cover some bullfighting history and how it has evolved through time as well as the training required to become a bullfighter. Ray will share the philosophical side of moving energy and keeping the flow, including the mental and physical requirements needed to control fear and how to cultivate a willingness to sacrifice oneself for that of another. Program attendees will learn about the com
munity and family of rodeo athletes and the brotherhood of men who are willing to do whatever it takes to get a bull rider safely to the fence.
The program includes professional photographs that capture Raymond, the bull, and the bull rider during tense moments in the arena. He promises to tell stories of good, old-fashioned wrecks.
Raymond was born and raised in Livingston, and grew up around cattle. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Abused Land Rehabilitation at Montana State University and a master’s degree in Natural Resource Management at Arizona State. Ray moved back to Montana in 2008 and started bullfighting when he was thirty-three years old – a paid hobby that kept him busy between twenty and forty-five nights per year. Having recently retired after eleven years in the arena, he quipped that he “earned enough money for gas and stitches.” Ray worked at Arlee’s 4th of July Rodeo for five years, and bull riders in the Roughrider Rodeo Association personally chose him during his last four years to serve as bullfighter for the finals.
Future programs include “Treasure State Tycoon: Nelson Story and the Making of Montana” by author John C. Russell on October 16th. Russell recounts the remarkable life of Nelson G. Story, a colorful and contradictory figure whose influence on Montana’s development was profound and rivaled by few others in its history. “A Pure Quill Montana Photographer” by Barbara Van Cleve on October 30th includes stories of her career taking photographs of the western range, ranchers, rodeo, cowboys, and cattle women. Barbara grew up on a ranch near Big Timber. Neal Lewing presents “The F.A.R.M. Show,” a Farm and Ranch Musical tribute on November 13th – a fast-paced family friendly show using music, poetry, history, legends, lies and a few laughs to celebrate the myriad aspects of agriculture through the ages.
“Rancher. Citizen Activist. Montana 1997,” an exhibit of black and white photographs will be at Park Photo during the speaker series, featuring photography by John Gayusky. He photographed nine ranches from Sweet Grass County to Circle in eastern Montana, documenting what inspired and motivated ranchers and their involvement in natural resource and agricultural policy making. The ranchers were members of the Northern Plains Resource Council.
For more information about the museum and other upcoming programs, visit www.yellowstonegatewaymuseum.org or find them on Facebook. •