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Equestrian DrillThe night air was warm and muggy on July 5, 1976. There was barely any wind to move a single hair out of place—hers or her horse’s. Close to 34,000 people sat watching. It was her first time. She was excited and proud. She was also grateful for the gloves. Without them, the flagpole might have slipped through her grip, which was clammy, maybe from nerves.Her equestrian drill team, the Texas Ranger Belles, had chosen her to post the American flag, which meant she was in the lead as the seven horses loped around Arlington Stadium, home of the Texas Rangers baseball team. She wouldn’t have dared to make a mistake, keeping the flag upright at all times, her forearm parallel to the ground and…

The post Inside the World of Equestrian Drill, Where Precision Dance and Rodeo Combine in a Graceful and Terrifying Horseback Ballet appeared first on Texas Monthly.

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Christian FlagIn 2004, a public junior college in North Texas abandoned plans to lease some of its land to a religious organization for $1 a month after the state attorney general warned that the effort could violate the law.Nearly two decades later, the college went further. After publicly posting only that Weatherford College’s board would meet to discuss property, members emerged from behind closed doors in November 2022 and voted unanimously to give a 38-acre property to Community Christian School. The property was valued at more than $2 million, according to the county’s appraisal district.“Faith and patience is the path,” Dan Curlee, then the college’s attorney, wrote in an email after the vote to Doug Jefferson, the administrator of the private religious school.Jefferson, who had asked…

The post Weatherford College Donated Land to a Christian School. State and Federal Laws Prohibit Such Gifts, Experts Say. appeared first on Texas Monthly.

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Graham Ebner profileEvery single inch of any pair of Graham Ebner cowboy boots has been crimped, nailed, pegged, sewed, stitched, stretched, and touched by Ebner’s own hands. If he’s lucky, he might squeak by with a finished pair in 120 hours. For more involved designs, though, an eight-week stint hunched over one pair of boots is not out of the realm of possibility. The 33-year-old works in front of an audience of collected vintage boots in his East Austin shop—some Ray Jones, some Charlie Dunn, many sourced from local thrift shops or Goodwills. Sometimes his German shepherd, Newt, is in attendance. Most of his equipment is secondhand or repurposed, such as the axle hub and brake drum from a Jeep that he’s MacGyvered to hammer soles or…

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the Chicks singing in front of an American flag background projected on a screenThere was a time when the Chicks were best known for their music, but since 2003—when they dissed George W. Bush on a London stage and were all but tarred and feathered by the Nashville establishment—their mere presence has been an inherently political thing. For years, the brand was the public face of left-leaning country music, and though these days they are joined by the likes of Maren Morris, Kacey Musgraves, Mickey Guyton, and the Hill-McGraw couple, the Chicks were the original proudly, loudly liberal country artists. So it was a no-brainer to have them perform at the Democratic National Convention, which they did this Thursday. The trio of Texas natives—Natalie Maines, Martie Maguire, and Emily Strayer—sang the national anthem before Kamala Harris, now officially the…

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boerne little league world seriesWHO: The youngsters of Boerne competing in the Little League World Series.WHAT: A dominant tournament run that has them two wins away from being the first Texas team in nearly sixty years to win the whole shebang. WHY IT’S SO GREAT: It’s always fun to root for kids doing their best in sport; it’s even more fun when those kids come from a community you recognize. In this case, those kids represent the San Antonio suburb of Boerne, perhaps best known for being frequently mispronounced (it sounds like “Bernie”). It’s also the home of what certainly looks to be the best Little League baseball team in the United States. The city’s squad is the only undefeated team remaining in the Little League World Series, having vanquished all…

The post These Texan Boys of Summer Are Two Wins Away From the Little League World Series Championship appeared first on Texas Monthly.

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

Texans' diminished presence at the DNCTexans feel it’s their birthright to be at the center of everything. When it came time for Texas Democratic Party chair Gilberto Hinojosa to deliver his state’s delegates to Kamala Harris during the roll call at the national convention on Tuesday, he began with the boast that Texas was the “nation’s biggest battleground.”You can’t blame him for trying; it’s his job to make that the case. But while the long-term trend lines are pushing Texas in the direction of becoming a purple state, and recent polling shows a closer race than 2020 now that Harris leads the ticket, the Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns aren’t treating it like one. Texas is expensive to campaign in, and not quite competitive enough to justify massive expenditure. The…

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Houston Texans inaugural season 1974The new team’s offense was designed for a quarterback who didn’t show up for training camp and never set foot in the locker room. The biggest name—and body—on defense was ordered off the field after five plays, having been served with a restraining order that barred him from playing. And Texas’s only team in the inaugural season of the World Football League, fifty years ago, wasn’t even in Texas when the chaotic campaign lurched to its finish.“Everything about covering the Houston Texans, it was almost surreal,” recalled Tony Pederson, who covered the team for the Houston Chronicle.The WFL’s name was no accident—the upstart league launched with plans to locate franchises around the globe. That’s how San Francisco lawyer Steve Arnold bought the rights to a…

The post The Texas Football Farce That Linked Jason Garrett, Larry King, and Sloth From ‘The Goonies’ appeared first on Texas Monthly.

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do judges taste state fair of texas foodTexas Monthly has a long history of lightly roasting the State Fair of Texas for its Big Tex Choice Awards nominees. The list of specialty fair food offered every year has felt like it got progressively more unhinged, making fried Oreos seem positively pedestrian. (Some might remember 2018’s cotton candy tacos or 2023’s Fruity Pebble pickles.) Now we have a clue as to why.Until this year, no one at the State Fair of Texas was required to actually taste the entries until they got to the semifinalist stage. Of course, it may not surprise you that the wacky dishes on offer are mainly marketing efforts, designed to get curious people trying and sharing—and expressing outrage about—them. But it still feels like a shocking oversight. When asked…

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Keeping Austin Weird in the Tim Walz EraDuring the early days of Kamala Harris’s candidacy for president of the United States, Tim Walz—then the governor of Minnesota and not yet her running mate—dropped a casual, offhand remark that had a sudden and dramatic impact on the American political landscape. You probably heard it: during a brief appearance on the MSNBC’s Morning Joe, when discussing Donald Trump and his VP selection, JD Vance, Walz declared that “these guys are just weird.” A full suite of politicians, activists, columnists, podcasters, pundits, and more reacted as though a spell had been broken. After decades of allowing Republicans to own the lane of representing the mainstream, middle America that’s into tractor pulls and Applebee’s, Walz’s five-word manifesto gave Democrats a rallying cry they could use to…

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Eterneva-ashes-diamonds-grief-jewelryHundreds of mini Polaroids are strung along the white hallways at the Eterneva lab in Kerrville, each one clipped to a long string by a clothespin. There’s Hassan, Luis Manuel, and Millie. Jojo, Angie, and Big Al. They’re fathers and sisters, children, mothers, astronauts, teachers, fisherman, and pilots. Their backgrounds and life experiences may have been vastly different, but their images all hang here for the same reason: a loved one didn’t want their stories to disappear, so their ashes have been turned into diamonds. Scattered among the photos, you’ll also find Camembert the dog and Scooter the cat.“It’s about sixty/forty pets to people,” says Eterneva co-CEO and cofounder Adelle Archer. She’s riding in the front passenger seat of the company Tesla that is taking…

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