05/24/2026
“I really didn’t grow up anywhere. We moved often. Never lived anywhere longer than one year at a time. We have lived in south west Kansas, south east Kansas, and the Oklahoma panhandle. I didn’t have anything to do with cowboying until I was 15, when my dad went to work for a guy on a small ranch. I helped Dad and day worked on the ranch.
We moved to the Drummond ranch my senior year in 1998. I was hired on full time the day after I graduated from Shidler High School. From there I went west to a fed lot, and then on to The Bell Ranch in New Mexico, where I lived in the bunkhouse. After the Bell, I made my way back to the Flint Hills and spent one summer day-working.
I met my wife Amy, and since 2000, I have been in Osage County either day working or working full time for ranches like Jacques Brothers, Joe Bush and G-. I have seen a lot of Osage County from a horse. I worked for Tom Drummond for 4 years before going to work for Tim and Ladd. We have raised 2 kids along the way: Colton and Carlee.
The Osage Cattlemen’s Association hosted their annual Spring Ranch Rodeo in 1998 and I rode with the Drummond Ranch. That was my first ranch rodeo. I hit a few ranch rodeos here or there after that. Then, in 2001, while working for G Bar, we went to the Range Round Up in Guthrie and won. It qualified the team for the WRCA finals.
The next few years I spent a lot of weekends practicing and learning. I finally figured out that if I wanted to win, I needed to find guys who were better than me in my weaknesses: when you have the best roper, the best mugger, the best milker, and a solid bronc rider, it makes it easy when everyone just does their job. Starting in 2005 and for years after, we built some pretty handy teams that were tough to beat.
One of my favorite memories is winning the Fort Worth Stock Show Ranch Rodeo with my 2 kids on the team. My boy won the bronc riding for us and my daughter won the barrel racing for us.
I owe my personal accomplishments to my teammates over the years. We have won everything from little rodeos to world championships, but we always treated them ALL like they were the World Finals, even if it was a $50 entry fee. We went to WIN.”
-Chris Potter
