When she was just 2, Lindsey Fancher-Rule’s life as a rodeo girl began.
That’s when Richard Rule married her mother, Shannon Fancher. When he took Shannon’s hand in marriage, he took Lindsey’s, too, and loved her like he did his two sons from his previous marriage. And that meant going to rodeos together.
Richard was a professional bull rider for 15 years, consistently ranking as one of the top 25 in the world (his record score at the National Western Stock Show in Denver stood for 18 years). He later helped put on the most prestigious rodeos in Northern Colorado, including the Greeley Stampede and the Larimer County Fair PRCA Rodeo. He served as a longtime board member and producer for the Larimer County Fair PRCA Rodeo in addition to his duties as operations supervisor at The Ranch Events Complex. He met Shannon, a large animal vet, while serving on the rodeo board together.
Lindsey was a kid at the events, so she cared mostly about going to the carnivals, Shannon says. But Lindsey learned how to ride horses and raise cattle and bucking bulls on the Fancy R Ranch in Loveland, Richard’s dream home, and she loved being behind the stalls with him or sitting in the stands. She didn’t realize how much she loved it all until he was gone.
Lindsey Fancher-Rule. Photo by Skillman Photography.
Continuing a family legacy
When Richard died of cancer at age 56, Lindsey was 15. Without him leading her through his world, it was no longer assured that rodeo would be a part of her life. She had to make it that way.
She remembered the dream she’d had as a little girl to be a rodeo queen. That dream took shape when she was 10, and the Miss Rodeo Colorado at the time borrowed her horse, Belle, at Richard’s urging, to carry the American flag during an event.
“I was this little girl in this big, big rodeo, and I’d never been behind the scenes before. It was magical how she made me feel so special, so seen,” Lindsey says. “I just thought she was the most magical creature on Earth.”
She chased that dream and started with the Larimer County Fair and PCRA Rodeo pageant in 2019. Shannon says Lindsey always mixed glamour with grit, so the pageants fit her.
“She’s always been enamored with princesses,” Shannon says with a laugh. “But she was naturally a cowgirl and had the personality. She was very smart and witty with this natural beauty.”
Richard’s death, Shannon says, “clarified” Lindsey’s dream.
“It’s really eye-opening what you take for granted,” Shannon says. “The entire family embraced [Richard’s memory] in their own way, and this was Lindsey’s way. She really missed him.”
At the time, Lindsey had a year before she turned 16, the youngest a contestant could become rodeo queen. She didn’t know much about it, but she was determined to honor Richard, who gave her most of what she needed to compete.
She knew how to ride, and her love for rodeo was genuine. She already seemed polished, so much so that Tara Graham Rowe, a Loveland resident and family friend who was Miss Rodeo Colorado in 2000, told her to just be herself.
“I told her that a lot of people would tell her how they think she needed to act,” Rowe says, “but she just needed to be the person she was and she would do well.”
Lindsey shearing her sheep.
Becoming queen
Lindsey became the Larimer County Fair & PRCA rodeo queen in 2019, and this year, she was named Miss Rodeo Colorado. She is already making her rounds and will appear at both the Larimer County Fair & PRCA Rodeo and Greeley Stampede this summer.
As queen, she feels a responsibility to honor both agriculture and rodeo. She wants to go to law school and pursue a career in water law and policy.
“Water is the thing that will make or break agriculture in Colorado,” she says.
But she also wants to honor her dad. She doesn’t think she would be Miss Rodeo Colorado without Richard’s passing since she wouldn’t have had to put herself out there to keep rodeo in her life. The work she does now brings up memories of him every day.
It’s been fun, she says, to travel to rodeos as her own person and not just as Richard’s daughter. One of the things she loves most about that is getting a chance to hear about his rodeo days from other grizzled veterans.
“Every rodeo I go to now, I meet people who knew him,” she says. “It’s been the most incredible blessing to hear all these stories and follow in his footsteps.”
