From the Saddle to Salvation: Ministering to the Unseen Rodeo Culture
by Cassidy Tourville
10/22/2024 8:00:00 AM“My staff can lead a kid hanging upside down on a horse to Christ.” Those are the kinds of comments you can expect to hear from U.S. missionary and endorsed rodeo chaplain Linda Scholtz.
She is an easygoing, quick-talking, spunky woman who is passionate and sincere about ministering to her rodeo community. Her ministry involves a myriad of opportunities to pour into cowgirls and cowboys alike, including teaching at trick riding schools, hosting cowgirl widow retreats and mentoring broken young women.
Linda’s ministry started out with a God-ordained encounter. She and her late husband, Paul, had just gotten married and were recent graduates of Central Bible College (CBC) when they met premier rodeo contractor Harry Vold. When Harry found out Paul was a preacher, he invited the two of them to travel with him, work the rodeos and preach to cowboys at rodeo church services. Linda was hired on to teach kindergarten to Harry’s five-year-old daughter, Kirsten, and became close with Karen, his wife.
For an entire summer, that was their ministry. Linda and Paul both knew they had been called into ministry, but just didn’t know what it would look like. At first, they had set out to become evangelists but never gained much traction. While dipping their toes in the waters of ministry, they worked at CBC to help keep themselves afloat. For a while, Linda says, “I thought I’d clean toilets the rest of my life at CBC and serve others. There were days I didn't have the best attitude about it, but God had us waiting there until that famous rodeo company came to town.” After their rodeo summer on the road, they “started getting services like crazy,” Linda recounts.
After hosting revival services for a while, they were contacted by Paul Markstrom, then senior director of U.S. Missions’ Chaplaincy Ministries, who encouraged them to become chaplains appointed by the Assemblies of God. That fall, Paul was ordained and they officially became chaplains in 1978. The couple traveled to St. Louis, Missouri, for their commissioning service, and that night, hit the road again to make it in time for the first rodeo of the season. Reflecting back on that time, Linda says, “I tell people all the time, when you know you're called and you don't know what He wants you to do, wait on Him.” Linda went on to become a fully commissioned U.S. missionary with Chaplaincy Ministries in 2015.
One day, Linda noticed Mrs. Vold leading her daughter around the arena on her horse. All of a sudden, the five-year-old little girl flipped upside down on her horse. Linda was intrigued; she had never seen trick riding before. Karen struck a deal with her: If Linda would saddle their horses, teach her daughter kindergarten and feed the little girl breakfast in the mornings, Karen would give her trick riding lessons.
For a year and a half, Linda took trick riding lessons and taught Kirsten kindergarten. It was in that time frame Paul and Linda knew that trick riding could be an opportunity for reaching a larger group of the rodeo world. Two months after getting her trick riding horse and trick riding saddle, she was approached by Vickie Tyer, an elite trick rider at that time, about filling a vacant spot on her rodeo’s trick riding team. Linda auditioned and was hired on the spot. For the next fifteen years, she trick rode at the rodeos while Paul preached and rode saddle broncs at rodeos across the U.S. Linda later went on to become a world champion trick rider.
Eventually, Linda was recruited to help Karen Vold teach trick riding. Thus started a ministry of her own – trick riding schools. Four to six times a year, Linda hosts trick riding schools on her property. Over time, she has employed Christian staff members to teach in the arena, but she still hosts and mentors many of the students who come out to her property. She says she tries to teach them in parables, comparing the nature of horses to the nature of godly living. They preach the gospel at every trick riding school and many young children are impacted.
Take Danielle*, a young lady who had come to Linda’s trick riding school one year. She enjoyed it, did well and had plans to return the next year but couldn’t. Several years later, Danielle called Linda and told her she was going through some heavy issues. In the midst of talking, she said, “I heard about God and how He can help me at trick riding school. Can you tell me more about God?” Linda and Danielle prayed over the phone and set up recurring Bible study sessions over FaceTime. Together, they read through the Book of John and on Easter Sunday, Linda led her to accept Christ as her Savior.
It is amazing to see the connections made through ministry and to witness the seeds planted turned into real fruit. For some that is not always the case. In 2017, Linda’s husband, Paul, passed away, leaving her as a widowed missionary. The Chaplaincy Ministries leadership encouraged her to take time to pray and navigate what the Lord had next for her. While was still grieving her husband, not one of her supporters stopped supporting her financially. Six months later, Linda began the process of becoming an ordained minister in addition to being a U.S. missionary. At that point, she started a new way of ministering to the cowgirls and rodeo-goers in her community.
Kirsten, who had begun to take over her father’s rodeo, invited Linda to travel with them again and help by driving her mother Karen to rodeos. It was on the road that Linda and Karen started hosting tea parties for widows at the rodeos. They wanted the women to come and spend time with them and share their testimonies. Eventually, Linda and Karen began hosting widow retreats at the Volds’ ranch for women in the ranching community who had lost their husbands. She also hosted a group of girls from Sarah’s Home who had been rescued from human trafficking and allowed them to participate in equine therapy on her ranch. “Horses are very safe to hug,” Linda says, allowing these girls to restore confidence and comfort through touch again.
Linda’s relationship with the Lord is steady and mature, resulting from a long-lasting walk with Him throughout years of servanthood and ministry. “I get surprised at what He does, but I'm not surprised anymore by His faithfulness. He blows me away,” she says.
Linda feels protected and loved by her rodeo family and is honored to be part of their culture. Even now, there are a lot of hurting women in rodeo, in part as a result of divorce, injury, widowhood, life-controlling problems and the rise of the LGBTQ+ community. She asks that people pray that the Holy Spirit would guide and direct her on how to minister to these hurting women.
Although this ministry is dangerous, Linda feels called to it, as the apostle Paul was called to Rome. Romans 15:13 is her driving force as she tirelessly continues in her ministry. Even through the long, winding road of her missions journey, she is constantly in awe of the Lord and His provision, as well as the consistent support from everyone in Chaplaincy Ministries and the fellow churches and laborers around her. She says, “I want to give my rodeo world hope – the hope of Christ.”
*Name changed for privacy.