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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher/Writer
Don’t get Karl Stressman wrong.
The former PRCA commissioner enjoyed his 20 months of retirement after overseeing ten National Finals Rodeo events in Las Vegas from 2008-17. But the former 12-year Wrangler and 10-year Pro Rodeo Cowboys executive knew he wasn’t ready to be put out to pasture quite yet.
So at age 72, Stressman — who spent a decade overseeing the Colorado Springs-based Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) — is managing the American Quarter Horse Association in Amarillo, Texas.
“I didn’t want to go back to work. I was 20 months retired. But my motor ran too fast for me,” Stressman said in his typical turn-of-the-phrase manner
So, he started his new gig in May. The American Quarter Horse Association is the world’s largest equine breed registry.
“This is the best thing in the world. Everybody loves quarter horses,” Stressman told LVSportsBiz.com in the Wrangler suite at Thomas & Mack Center before the NFR’s eighth night in Las Vegas Thursday. “They are the most amazing animals.”
Stressman moved from his native Arizona to Texas to serve as the chief executive officer of a quarter horse organization that is a $50 million operation with 220 employees and presence in 130 countries.
“I got the experience,” Stressman said, “and the legs.”
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After a dozen years of working on marketing for Wrangler, Stressman was the commissioner at the PRCA where he used his cowboy poet looks, his marketing savvy and his peacemaker skills to grow the number of rodeos sanctioned by PRCA, sponsorships and TV viewership of NFR, the Super Bowl of rodeos.
When Stressman handed the reins to George Taylor after he left the PRCA at the end of 2017, it was also a transition in style as the job title went from commissioner to CEO.
Stressman was a colorful cowboy marketing executive who still enjoyed team roping, while Taylor’s corporate life was at Caterpillar before signing up as PRCA’s CEO. Here was the January 2018 announcement:
After Taylor resigned in August 2021, Tom Glause was named PRCA CEO. Glause was a former longtime Wyoming resident who worked as chief operating officer and director of rodeo administration for the PRCA starting in May 2019 until he became CEO last year.
Glause worked as the state insurance commissioner under two governors in Wyoming, where he was a saddle bronc rider before coming on board with the PRCA.
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Stressman was the PRCA’s top executive when negotiations with Las Vegas turned hot and contentious in 2013 over the NFR deal in Sin City. Stressman talked publicly about moving the NFR and its tourism dollars to Dallas and Osceola County in the Orlando metro area if Las Vegas didn’t deliver the dollars.
But in the end, the PRCA renewed its vows with Las Vegas Events and the LVCVA. The National Finals Rodeo deal with Las Vegas Events, the local promoter, is good through 2025.
“It was tough negotiations. You have to use all your cards,” Stressman half-joked, noting he needed to throw Dallas and Orlando on the table as leverage during the negotiations with Las Vegas Events back in 2013. “They’re good card players and I gotta play my cards, too.”
Stressman recalled that when he was PRCA commissioner, the job was much more than just negotiating with Las Vegas as the home for NFR. The job was a nuanced balancing act of trying to serve the wants and needs of the cowboy contestants, stock contractors and rodeo promoters in big and small towns across the U.S. and Canada.
All the while, Stressman was a straight shooter with a marketing man’s diplomatic edge who could tame a sticky situation with an amusing turn of a phrase or a dose of charm.
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As AQHA executive vice president, Stressman serves as chief executive officer of the Association. It’s a job that also involves passion for the Western lifestyle and working with various horse groups.
There are breeders, owners and competitors plus various committees in the quarter horse association. The quarter horse is the most popular breed in the U.S. and its powerful legs make the horse a fast-moving animal that can engage in anything from races to ranch work. It could be a show horse, a trail horse, a police horse or a rodeo horse.
The Association has more than 230,000 members and six million horses registered around the world.
There aren’t too many Western groups that could have lured the married father of eight and grandfather of 11 out of retirement.
“The AQHA was certainly at the top of that list,” Stressman said.