8 rodeo coaches and clinicians, from Mark Eakin to Martha Josey and Cody Lambert, each with achievements, years active, riders coached and nationality.
Every pick lists achievements, years active, teams coached and nationality, and the ranking is our judgement about their influence on rodeo rather than a medal tally. The questions at the end handle what usually comes next.
If you are working through the subject more broadly, we keep the same kind of list for rodeo books and rodeo films and documentaries.
Best Rodeo Coaches and Clinicians:
- Mark Eakin
- Martha Josey
- Cody Lambert
- Cody Custer
- Jhett Johnson
- Jerome Davis
- Kody Lostroh
- Justin McBride
After learning from the coaches, explore how the sport is evolving by reading about the best rodeo athletes of all time.
#1 Mark Eakin
- 🏆 Achievements: Long serving college rodeo coach whose teams have won national intercollegiate titles and sent riders to the professional circuit.
- 📅 Years Active: 1990s to today
- 👕 Riders Coached: Intercollegiate rodeo team riders
- 🌐 Nationality: United States
College rodeo is where the sport does its coaching. The National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association runs a full season across a hundred and thirty member schools, each with a coach.
A college coach handles every event on the card, from bull riding to barrel racing, which no professional specialist ever has to do.
#2 Martha Josey
- 🏆 Achievements: Barrel racing champion who founded the Josey Ranch clinics, through which thousands of riders have passed.
- 📅 Years Active: 1960s to today
- 👕 Riders Coached: Clinic riders at the Josey Ranch in Texas, including world champions
- 🌐 Nationality: United States
Josey qualified for the National Finals Rodeo across four decades and rode at the Olympic level in barrel racing exhibitions, then built a teaching operation around it.
The Josey Ranch clinics train horse and rider together, which is the part of rodeo coaching that has no equivalent in other sports.
#3 Cody Lambert
- 🏆 Achievements: Founding member of Professional Bull Riders, its livestock director for decades, and the man behind the protective vest that is now mandatory.
- 📅 Years Active: 1990s to today
- 👕 Riders Coached: Professional bull riders, including Tuff Hedeman and Lane Frost
- 🌐 Nationality: United States
Lambert designed the first bull riding protective vest after the death of Lane Frost, and it became compulsory equipment. That is a coaching contribution measured in lives.
As livestock director he shaped which bulls riders faced, which decides what the sport actually asks of the athletes.
#4 Cody Custer
- 🏆 Achievements: World champion bull rider who taught bull riding clinics after his competitive career.
- 📅 Years Active: 1990s to today
- 👕 Riders Coached: Clinic riders and young bull riders
- 🌐 Nationality: United States
Custer won the world bull riding title in 1992 and moved into clinic teaching, which is the standard path for a retired rider who wants to stay in the sport.
Bull riding clinics teach the mechanics of the ride and, at least as importantly, how to get off and get away.
#5 Jhett Johnson
- 🏆 Achievements: World champion team roper who runs roping schools and coaches younger ropers.
- 📅 Years Active: 2000s to today
- 👕 Riders Coached: Roping school students
- 🌐 Nationality: United States
Team roping is the most teachable event in rodeo, because it is a repeatable technical skill rather than a ride you survive.
Roping schools run year round across the western United States and are the main coaching structure the event has.
#6 Jerome Davis
- 🏆 Achievements: World champion bull rider who, after a riding accident left him paralysed, built a rodeo and a stock operation that develops young riders.
- 📅 Years Active: 1990s to today
- 👕 Riders Coached: Young bull riders through his rodeo and stock programme
- 🌐 Nationality: United States
Davis won the world title in 1995 and was paralysed in a ride three years later, then stayed in the sport from the other side of the fence.
Providing the bulls and the arena for developing riders is a form of coaching the sport depends on and rarely names.
#7 Kody Lostroh
- 🏆 Achievements: Professional Bull Riders world champion who became a coach in the teams format of the sport.
- 📅 Years Active: 2010s to today
- 👕 Riders Coached: Professional bull riders in the PBR Team Series
- 🌐 Nationality: United States
The PBR Team Series, launched in 2022, gave bull riding actual coaches for the first time, because a team format needs someone picking the lineup.
Lostroh won the world title in 2009 and moved into coaching, which the sport had no role for during his own career.
#8 Justin McBride
- 🏆 Achievements: Two time world champion bull rider who has coached and mentored riders since retiring.
- 📅 Years Active: 2010s to today
- 👕 Riders Coached: Young bull riders and team format riders
- 🌐 Nationality: United States
McBride was the first bull rider to earn more than five million dollars in the arena, and retired at thirty to teach and commentate.
Rodeo coaching runs almost entirely through people who did the thing themselves, because nothing else establishes credibility with a rider about to get on a bull.
FAQ
Does rodeo have coaches?
Yes, in two places. College rodeo runs a full intercollegiate season with paid team coaches, and retired champions teach clinics and roping schools. What rodeo has never had is a coach in the arena during a ride, because the ride lasts eight seconds.
Who is the best rodeo coach?
There is no ranking. In barrel racing, Martha Josey and the Josey Ranch clinics have the longest and widest reach; in bull riding, the college coaches and the clinic teachers do the developmental work.
