KEY Magazine Fort Worth

A New Relationship Sparks a Great Ride –

The Fort Worth Museum of Science and History teams up with the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame for a Film/Exhibit Experience

Do cowboys and cowgirls really come from Texas? Do they wear ten-gallon hats and chaps with fringe? Do they sing songs around campfires after long cattle drives? Find out the answers to these questions and more at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History’s Omni Theater during Ride Around the World, a new IMAX® film, and Ride: A Global Adventure, an original exhibit inspired by the film on display at the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame (located across the street from the theater). This revealing film-exhibit experience takes you on a worldwide tour of cowboy culture, highlighting the true international roots of the American cowboy and cowgirl.

Ride Around the World is the first large format film by Trinity Films, an award-winning television and film documentary company based in Austin, Texas, and led by producer/writer/director Harry Lynch, senior producer and Fort Worth native Jeff Fraley, and producer Brady Dial. Filmed in spectacular locations such as Morocco, Argentina, Chile, Spain, Mexico, British Columbia and West Texas, Ride Around the World features American cowboys and cowgirls on the Four Sixes Ranch in West Texas, Mexican charros and charras, Spanish vaqueros, Argentinean gauchos, Chilean baqueanos and Canadian cowboys who are all part of a single global horse culture – an unbroken trail stretching back 1,500 years. The film starts off at the Four Sixes Ranch in Guthrie, Texas, where the ranch foreman assigns the cowboys their duties for the day. From there you sweep away to distant lands, experiencing ranch life and horse culture in some of the most remote and beautiful places in the world. Through such wonderful imagery, Ride Around the World demonstrates that cowboy-like people come from all corners of the globe and share common traits with the American cowboy. These men and women possess a spirit of determination seen throughout each culture – a spirit of independence, tradition and hard work.

The “ride” doesn’t stop there, however. Continue your journey and experience Ride: A Global Adventure at the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame, conveniently located across the street from the Museum of Science and History. This original, three-dimensional exhibit takes you from the dusty deserts of Morocco to the high plains of the Four Sixes Ranch and beyond the myth that all cowboys and cowgirls are from Texas. Although the classic American cowboy and cowgirl are universal icons, they have many counterparts in other corners of the world.

Ride: A Global Adventure not only showcases the people seen in the horse cultures from the film, it demonstrates the ongoing relationship between humans and horses throughout the world. As constant companions throughout history, these graceful yet powerful animals helped mankind discover new lands across the globe, manage livestock and carry a sense of discovery into the modern world throughout history.

Ride: A Global Adventure highlights authentic tools, tack and clothes from cultures seen in the film in a dynamic and sophisticated fashion. Multimedia components such as a behind-the-scenes look into the making of Ride Around the World and video vignettes educating visitors on each culture heighten the sensory experience. Not only will you see how these cultures thrive, you will hear about it, too. Overall, you will learn that while many countries possess their own skilled horsemen and rich horse culture, some of these traditions have influenced our idea of the American cowboy and cowgirl. Creative teams from both museums worked with Bob Weis Design Island Associates of Orlando, Florida, in creating Ride: A Global Adventure. “Our goal was to help people understand that there are a lot of different cowboys in the world,” said Randall Webster, the lead designer.

Webster’s wealth of knowledge and experience ensured the success of this exciting dual-institution project. He recently worked on Top of the Rock, the reopening of the observation deck at Rockefeller Center in New York, and Action! An Adventure in Moviemaking, an exhibit now at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry. Earlier he worked for Walt Disney Imagineering, the design company for the Walt Disney Corporation. His creative ideas and practical “know-how” of exhibit design brought Ride: A Global Adventure to life. Ride Around the World, now showing at the Omni Theater, and Ride: A Global Adventure, on display at the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame, run through October 1. These two creative displays of history tell the “story behind the story” of the American cowboy and cowgirl and share insight into our rich western heritage.

Ride: A Global Adventure was created through a collaboration between the Cattle Raisers Museum, Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, and National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame.

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