Cowboy CrossFit? Red Bull’s Wildest Sport Yet Lands in Fort Worth

Saddle up, y'all.

This weekend marks the first-ever Rancher Strong fitness competition, which combines the grit of ranch life with the intensity of traditional fitness competitions. The inaugural event, hosted by Red Bull, will take place at Fort Worth's historic Cowtown Coliseum.

Competitors will battle head-to-head on an eight-element obstacle course designed by Rancher Strong's Sportive Director, Lance Perkus, who is known as the "Cowboy Ninja" from American Ninja Warrior.

Perkus took inspiration from real-life tasks performed by ranchers, such as roping, riding, hauling and livestock care, and blended them with a traditional fitness approach.
Over 60 male and female athletes will compete head-to-head in timed heats, with one male and one female each being crowned "Red Bull Rancher Strong."

The top three finishers will be awarded prizes ranging from a custom gold belt buckle trophy to a new Polaris ATV and a VIP trip to Red Bull Flugtag, an internationally renowned event that will return to North Texas this fall.

Both the women's and men's categories have some serious competitors being brought in to compete for cowboy glory. Many of the participants are American Ninja Warrior legends, like eight-time competitors Maggi Thorne and Tiana Webberley, the latter of whom is a professional stuntwoman featured in productions like Baywatch and Zombieland: Double Tap.

For men, they're bringing in Jay Woods, a former football player for Duke and the University of Michigan, as well as Thomas van Tonder, an official Red Bull athlete and multi-time national champion and Guinness World Record holder for the fastest 50-meter rope climb.

Other talents include former bareback riders, a Team USA beach wrestler and Texas-born ranch hands and entrepreneurs.

Noah Ohlsen, Red Bull athlete and 11-time CrossFit Games medalist, and Amanda Nigg, founder of Farm Fit Training, will share hosting duties for the event.

A Cowtown Course

The course breaks down like this:

1. Escape the Barn: Descend from the barn's heights using hanging monkey bars.

2. Load the feed: Heave hefty feed sacks and hustle them into the waiting trailer.

3. Stockyard Scramble: Leap the wire gate, toss a heavy tire back over, hurdle fences, hurl a second tire, and vault the final gate.

4. Tree Stumpede: Balance and agility are your best friends as you tiptoe across a gauntlet of tree stumps.

5. Hay Bale Hustle: Scale a towering wall of hay bales and conquer the other side with grit and speed.

6. Grandpa's Trailer: Unhook Grandpa's trailer, push it with power to station #2, and unload it like a pro.

7. Rope the bull: Mount a stationary horse and haul a weighted bull sled across the line.

8. Barn & Finish – Buzzer Beater: Climb the ladder back to the barn balcony, slap the buzzer and stop the clock with style.

Tickets for the Red Bull Rancher Strong Event are now on sale for Saturday, June 7. Adult tickets start at $20 per person, and children 10 years old or younger are admitted into the event for free with the purchase of an accompanying adult ticket.

Note: When we checked pricing, tickets were going for only $5 per person, including all fees.