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2025 Black Hills Stock Show | GIRL POWER: The women of Sutton Rodeo

There’s more going on behind the scenes at Rodeo Rapid City than meets the eye. 

And it’s the women of Sutton Rodeo who get the job done. 

While the Sutton men: Steve, sons Brent and Brice and son-in-law Steven are more visible during the rodeo, the women: Steve’s wife Kim, daughter Amy (married to Steven Muller) and daughters-in-law Roz (married to Brent) and Alyssa (married to Brice) are keeping the wheels turning.  



The ladies, mainly Kim and Amy, are responsible for many of the moving parts that make Rodeo Rapid City run: marketing, advertising, ticketing, sponsorships, meetings, coordinating, scheduling, and so much more.  

Preparations for the next year’s rodeo begin before this year’s event is even over, Kim said. They hire contract personnel like clowns, specialty acts, announcers and bullfighters more than a year in advance.  



In August of the previous year, Kim and Amy are in meetings with the Monument, the venue where Rodeo Rapid City takes place, to set ticket release dates, marketing and advertising and meeting with sponsors and hotels.  

In September, Amy works on lining up the approximately 100 vendors for the trade show, and in November, Kim is taking entries for the 20X high school rodeo that happens during Rodeo Rapid City.  

In addition to the vendors, Amy handles the social media for the rodeo and all of the scheduling for the live stage, which has 81 shows throughout the nine days of the event. Shows range from live talk shows to game shows, cooking demonstrations, music, youth events and more. 

Amy lines up the entertainers and hosts for the shows, making sure they have what they need.  

On January 2, Kim moves temporarily to Rapid City to spend the next five weeks there, preparing for the rodeo. Being in town makes it easier to meet with sponsors, vendors, and building staff. 

The week of the rodeo, Kim moves her office into the Monument, making it more convenient for goods to be delivered and to communicate with everyone involved with the event.  

All the while, from her home near Onida, S.D., Amy is coordinating personnel & rodeo queens; about 40 of whom visit Rodeo Rapid City; scheduling transportation, hotel rooms, itineraries, autograph sessions, and more. 

Amy choreographs the openings for each night of rodeo, each with its own theme: military night, for example, and lines out the participants who are needed for the openings.  

When Rodeo Rapid City started in 1978, it was Julie, Jim’s wife and Steve’s dad, who was doing all of the prep work. Kim married Steve in 1983, and right away, she became involved in the work.  

Kim and Steve’s kids: Amy, Brent and Brice, were involved with the rodeo company from the beginning. Amy, by the time she was four, was carrying the American flag on horseback for rodeo openings, and Brent, at age six, was picking up flank straps.  

“In a small business, you do all the things, you wear all the hats,” Amy said. When the family produces a rodeo, she drives a truck and trailer, hauling calves and steers. “Hanging banners, putting up panels, sorting livestock, we are the crew.”  

The Sutton women meet with everyone involved in Rodeo Rapid City: with the Monument building, the sound and spotlight technicians, the pyro, security, ticketing and ushers, and anyone who is part of the rodeo, including the security team for Governor Kristi Noem, when she makes appearances.  

Each morning, Amy leads a production meeting, outlining the specific events for the day and working through the show, going through each person’s role to make sure everyone is on the same page. “I think most people would be surprised to find we have it planned down to the minute on what is going to happen during each performance.” She also meets with the queens daily, making sure they have the day’s schedule.  

These are “daily meetings to make sure everybody’s on the same page,” Kim said.  

And Rodeo Rapid City is so much more than PRCA rodeo. It includes mounted shooting competitions, horsemanship clinics, high school rodeo, FFA Day, Ladies Day, a special rodeo, and more. “We want to make it a rich experience,” Kim said.  

As she prepares for Rodeo Rapid City, Kim has a hard time falling asleep, “because I can’t shut off my mind. I wake up in the night, thinking, ‘did I do this?’ I have a notepad by the bed,” to add to her to-do list.  

Sutton Rodeo provides bucking stock for 28 rodeos annually across the nation. They serve as the committee at five of those rodeos: Rapid City, Brookings, and Onida, South Dakota; Grand Island, Nebraska, and Northfield, Minnesota.  

Once the rodeo starts, Kim and Amy’s job doesn’t end. The duo works as the timers at the rodeo, running the stopwatches for each competitive run and recording times.  

In this role, the women have been selected to time the Badlands Circuit Finals Rodeo, held in Minot, N.D., numerous times. The two of them have been selected as timers at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, and both have been nominated as one of the five best timers in the PRCA several times. Kim won the award of PRCA Timer of the Year in 2018.  

Brent and Brice’s wives play a role as well, even though they don’t always travel to rodeos.  

Roz helps husband Brent with pickup horses (he picks up many of their rodeos), and both of them are support staff on the ranch near Onida.  

“We’re at rodeos,” Kim said, “but there are things that need to be done at home. We have livestock to feed, and someone has to keep things running, and they do that. Whatever it is, they help. If it’s meeting someone to pick them up, or running to get parts or medicine from the vet, both of those women do that at the drop of a hat.”  

The Sutton Rodeo Co. wouldn’t be where it is if it wasn’t for the women, Steve said. “They’re the glue that holds us together. We all have different jobs, and in my mind, they have one of the tougher ones. They’re working to make Sutton Rodeo get better all the time.” 

Both Kim and Amy love the rodeo friendships they’ve made through the years.  

“The best part of our industry is by far the people you get to work with,” Amy said. “I have friends across the country, relationships that I would have probably never had, in another scenario.” 

Amy also likes the creative part of her job that comes with choreographing rodeo openings. “I like to mix things up and freshen things up on a traditional product like rodeo. It’s challenging, but when it comes together, it’s so rewarding.” 

In 2025, Sutton Rodeo celebrates 100 years of existence. Amy, Brent and Brice’s kids are the sixth generation, and of that, Steve and Kim are proud.  

“All three of our kids are equal partners in Sutton Rodeo,” Steve said, “and it’s a great family operation.” 

“Even when we told our kids to go to college and get degrees and get really good-paying jobs somewhere else,” Kim said, “they all wanted to come back to the ranch and run Sutton Rodeo. That tells you how they felt about it.”  

Kim and Amy’s goal is to make sure everybody who comes to Rodeo Rapid City is satisfied.  

“We try to be prepared as we can be,” Kim said. “It helps everything to run more smoothly. The more prepared you are, the easier it is to roll with the things that pop up like whack-a-moles. We want everybody happy and having the best time.”  

The sixth generation of Suttons includes the kids. Amy and Steven have a son, Shaden, and a daughter, Shally. Brent and Roz have a son, Sid, and Brice and Alyssa have two daughters, Ruby and Stella, and a son, Waylon.