The festival's ranch rodeo features events with practical tasks that a cowboy might perform on a ranch--things like trailer backing, animal doctoring and branding, and team penning.

The presentation of scholarly papers is scheduled for Friday, February 14, 2003. Papers should deal with some aspect of South Texas Ranching Heritage--history, politics, geography, culture or literature. Single papers, panels, slide shows and video presentations are appropriate formats. Some papers may be published in The Journal of South Texas. A one page proposal including a title and brief description should be submitted by November 15, 2002.