With a lifetime of experience in rodeo, Joe Don Griffin and Kim Stewart - Griffin, joined forces to start J Bar K Rodeo Company in 2018. Based out of Madisonville, Tennessee, J Bar K primarily produces rodeos across the states of Tennessee and Georgia and has focused on International Professional Rodeo Association (IPRA) sanctioned and co-sanctioned events from the beginning. “Joe Don and I are a good team and we both have long-standing connections to the IPRA. We met at the IFR 10 years ago. We have many of the same ideas about the direction we want to go with rodeos, and we have the same end goal. We love working with the IPRA because they are a family-oriented organization that also strives to be bigger and better every day.”

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J bar K Rodeo Company produces approximately 5 to 8 IPRA rodeos each season and they look forward to that number growing in the future. They’re especially proud of the company’s bucking stock they own and maintain on their 150-acre ranch. They have 35 head of bareback and saddle bronc horses and 15 bulls. “We have some colts we’ve raised that we’ll start bucking this year, so we’re excited to see them perform. We keep all of our stock on a daily feeding program, and when bringing new stock in, we look for big-boned stocky horses that have good personalities and are easy to work with.” Two of the J Bar K superstars are saddle bronc horses; a big sorrel paint, #1177 Cowboy Wisdom, and an 8-year-old grey mare, #039 Abby, that have each been to the IFR twice. Cowboy Wisdom has also been to the NFR; but you wouldn’t guess he was so wild and wooly in the arena if you saw him following Kim around the pasture waiting to get loved on.