FloSports has added another member to the rodeo team. Gabriella “Gabi” Jaffee, owner of the popular social media account “Rodeo Wrecks,” has been announced as the Content Marketing Coordinator for FloRodeo. 

Jaffee started Rodeo Wrecks in 2013 as a platform to display “wreck” pictures that contestants don’t normally purchase but fans love to see, and organically grew it to a community with more than 175,000 followers on Instagram and over 100,000 on Facebook. She will continue to document the rankest wrecks for fans from the account while working for FloRodeo.

While she did not grow up in the rodeo world, she grew to love it and has built her work around her passion for the sport. Jaffee’s experience with Rodeo Wrecks, as well as her experience as a social media strategist, writer, photographer and content manager, make her a perfect fit for this position. 

"I couldn’t be more excited to be working in Austin at the FloSports headquarters as the Content Marketing Coordinator for FloRodeo,” said Jaffee. “The position perfectly blends my past work experience, my passion for rodeo and my love of social media together. It honestly feels like such a natural position for me to step into, and is kind of a culmination of everything I've done over the past five years… it truly is a dream job!"

Jaffee graduated Cum Laude from the prestigious Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. She will work with site editor Katy Lucas to continue to elevate FloRodeo’s coverage. 

Lucas, who has worked for FloRodeo since November of 2017, hails from Alberta, Canada. She attended her first rodeo at just 11 days old to watch her father, Canadian tie-down roping champion Joe Lucas, compete. 

Lucas is now an avid team roper herself, competing both north and south of the border in the Team Roping Canada Association where she was the 2014 finals champion in the No. 12 category, and the World Series of Team Roping Association where she has earned four qualifications to the multi-million dollar finals in Las Vegas, Nevada. Lucas has also been promoting rodeo for years through various rodeo queen titles, working her way up from her local rodeo queen pageant, through to become the Alberta High School Rodeo Queen, Miss Ponoka Stampede, and was the first lady of Canadian Professional Rodeo as Miss Rodeo Canada 2015. 

An honors graduate from Lethbridge College with a diploma in Communication Arts, Lucas travels to rodeos to deliver the coverage diehard fans crave and helps grow the sport with all-access content that informs the community and promotes its athletes.

“Within five minutes of speaking with Gabi, it was clear our passions for rodeo aligned,” said Lucas. “We both have a deep love for the sport, and have already been brainstorming countless ideas we can bring to the FloRodeo table to help promote it. We have completely different backgrounds, but we can use that to our advantage to create coverage that is versatile, outside the box, and entertaining to rodeo fans.”

Learn More About Gabi:

How did you get involved with the rodeo world?

I wasn't raised in rodeo, but when I was growing up in Colorado Springs, my best friends boarded their horses in the barn that's right behind where they hold the Pikes Peak Or Bust Rodeo. The first time I saw all the action and drama in rodeo, I fell in love!

How did Rodeo Wrecks get its start?

I needed to get published in order to graduate with my journalism degree, and I was really interested in bull riding at the time so I went to a local bull riding and took some pictures and interviewed the contractor. He loved the shots I took and invited me to start taking pictures on a regular basis. Word got around and after a while, I was shooting 3-4 days a week and had all these pictures of guys getting bucked off and stomped on. Everyone liked to see them, but no one wanted to buy them, so I started putting them online and people started tagging me in their wrecks... five years later, here I am!

Did you ever think it would grow to where it is today when you first started?

I kind of had one of those sky-opening-up, birds-singing-in-the-background, this-is-it moments where you know you've just done something that is going to change the course of your life, but I never thought that I would get recognized at literally every rodeo and honky-tonk I went to afterward. It's crazy how people think of me as some kind of celebrity—I'm really pretty low key.

Why did you decide to take the job at FloRodeo?

I decided to take the job at FloRodeo because it feels like the natural progression of everything I've done in my marketing and rodeo career. I love rodeo and I love social media and FloRodeo gives me the opportunity to do both in a gorgeous city (Austin) with an incredible team and a state-of-the-art office. I'm very blessed to be here!

What do you hope to accomplish with your work at FloRodeo?

I want to bring FloRodeo to the forefront of any and every conversation surrounding media coverage in the sport of rodeo. I see so many media outlets doing the same thing in our industry and I see FloRodeo as being different—edgy, cool, forward-thinking and outside-the-box... the Mavericks of the Rodeo world.

You don't compete in rodeo yourself, but what is one event you've always wanted to try?

I have always wanted to try ranch bronc riding, believe it or not!

Tell us about "the van."

She's an 1983 Ford Econoline E150—everyone says she looks like the van Lane Frost used to rodeo in. I got the van for $200 from my friend John Peters, who helped me fix it up because when I got it, it had no headlights, no taillights, no windshield... nothing! I loaded up everything I owned in it and lived in it for about two months (or on the couches of my rodeo family). It was a blast and taught me so much about life!

Any good rodeo competitor/rodeo gypsy knows how to make a "gas station meal"—what does that meal include for you?

I'm definitely into health and fitness, so eating right on the road was a challenge, but a good "gas station meal" for me usually includes some sort of beef jerky, some healthy version of chips if I can get them (baked or sweet potato or whatever) and some unsweetened tea.

You're really into fitness, so the jocks out there want to know: how much can you lift? 

I used to compete in Olympic lifting, but I have since transitioned to more of a bodybuilding approach. I don't lift as heavy as I used to, but there's not many who can keep up with my workouts. 

Who is your rodeo hero?

Guilherme Marchi. I'm a huge fan of his for many reasons, including what he's done to open up the doors to up-and-coming Brazilian bull riders, his passion and dedication to his fitness and craft, and his personality. He's always smiling, always happy and joking around. I met him for the first time in Glendale at a PBR there, and he stayed after everyone else to make sure everyone who wanted an autograph got one. He's one of the most humble guys you can ever meet, and he's had over 600 qualified rides! 

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