Longtime Fallon resident Andrea Van Leuven, who spent decades learning and living the cowboy lifestyle, earned the prestigious honor of being named the Woman of the West by Western Horseman magazine earlier this year. Featured on the January cover, Andrea received the award during the Art of the Cowgirl event in late February in Wickenburg, Arizona.
Andrea, her husband Scott, and daughter Kadie are part of the driving force behind the big loop roping and cattle handling competition she helped found, held each November in Winnemucca. The Buckaroo Traditions Gathering not only celebrates America’s Western heritage but also promotes stockmanship, horsemanship, and low-stress animal handling.
“To say she deserves ‘Woman of the West’ is an understatement,” said daughter Kadie Zeller. “She is a force to be reckoned with and it’s an honor to be her daughter.”
While she and her husband are currently working at the remote C Punch Ranch outside Lovelock, Nevada, Andrea spent many years in Fallon, raising her family and helping others.
Her professional journey included multiple leadership roles in youth outreach, substance abuse prevention, and mental health services. She worked for the Churchill County Juvenile Probation Office managing programs to prevent underage drinking, directed the Cantaloupe Festival where she changed policies to protect youth, and later led afterschool programs for the school district. Most recently, she served as executive director of the Churchill Community Coalition, where she focused on mental health, suicide prevention, and family support services.
Her long-standing work in the mental health field led to her nomination by Western Horseman editor Dani Licklider.
“Dani loved how we are incorporating mental health, addiction, and community resources for rural families,” Andrea said. “Dani was inspired at the culmination of work I had done, and she nominated me to be Woman of the West!”
Andrea grew up in Hawthorne and received her first horse in first grade. It was kept at a local facility, and in those corrals she met many different types of people, but one vaquero in particular made a lasting impression.
“He befriended me. He had a beautiful well-broken spade bit bridle horse that was very fancy. He braided me a hackamore set up, and I rode my pony in it for years,” Andrea said. “He taught me about creating a nice horse through the old vaquero rules of being respectful of their mouths.”
She competed in horse shows and rodeos as a child and helped friends on their ranches.
“At 18 I wanted to go sneak off and work on one of Nevada’s bigger ranches,” Andrea said. “Back then, no women were hired on crews.” She continued working with horses during college and “cowboyed” on her days off.
After college, she and her first husband were working on a ranch in California when they found themselves unexpectedly unemployed after their first daughter was born. They reached out to the cowboy community for help.
“We called our friends, the Openshaws, who found us a job in Fallon in 1993,” she said. Andrea returned to showing horses, raising cattle and cowboying.
Kathy Openshaw said she and her husband Bud first met Andrea in 1987 on a packing trail in the Sierras; Andrea delivered camp supplies on horseback and Kathy was the cook.
“Andrea’s always been a really fun gal to know,” Kathy said.
Following her divorce, Andrea entered the business world and began her career in mental health and substance abuse prevention. Fast forward many years, Andrea remarried Scott Van Leuven. While he cowboyed across the West, she remained behind, raising her daughters and focusing on a stable life.
“I wanted to go back to cowboying, but I had two girls that were in school in Fallon, and I felt a stable lifestyle and paycheck was the best!”
After a series of personal challenges, Andrea reevaluated her path.
“I was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2018, my mom had cancer and became homebound, and my granddaughter was born in 2019 with Downs Syndrome and a heart defect,” she said. “It was a lot to deal with. It made me reevaluate my priorities and what were the things I wanted to do in life. I did NOT want to have regrets. Cowboying had always had my heart, so in 2019 I left Fallon and went to work cowboying.”
When Scott was named cow boss at the C Punch Ranch later that year, Andrea was finally able to join him full-time. Both daughters had graduated, and the timing was right. The million-acre ranch is remote, miles from any neighbors or grocery store — and she loves it.
“It’s peaceful, quiet and away from the busy life,” Andrea said. “Our granddaughter Arlonie has been the biggest blessing. She has lived with us at the ranch for a lot of the time while mom was in beauty school. She has her own pony, she rides and moves cows, and she feeds the horses and baby calves.”
During a long drive to Idaho, Andrea and Scott talked about the lack of good stockmanship and horsemanship competitions. She shared her idea with Kadie, and the Buckaroo Traditions Gathering was born. The first event was held in November 2023 in Winnemucca, with a focus on low-stress competitions for both horses and cattle.
“When timed events became popular, it added a lot of pressure to go fast, many times at the animal’s expense,” she said. “Buckaroo Traditions Gathering highlights and honors buckaroo traditions and art forms that have been used in ranching over 150 years, which were handed down from the old Californios.”
“Our cattle live outside year-round and only see man on a horse twice a year when we gather them to cull, wean and ship. So, they have to be handled in a way that gives them a positive, low-stress interaction,” Andrea said. “If you’re a good stockman you can read these cattle and know how to handle them to win. If you’re fast and aggressive, you’re not going to do well at this roping!”
Family friend Kadee Buckmaster Muratore said Andrea and Scott have cultivated a culture of learning without judgment.
“Just as they believe in low-stress cattle handling, they believe in low-stress people handling,” Kadee said. “I have seen them let the greenest of people ride some of their best horses, myself included. I have been on the receiving end of nothing but encouragement and belief from Andrea, even when I didn’t believe in myself.”
After hearing Andrea talk about organizing an event like this for years, Kadee is pleased to see it come to life.
“It is magnificent to see it come to fruition. She has done a truly remarkable job. The event has stayed true to her values of low-stress cattle handling, fancy loop roping and well-handled horses,” Kadee said. “I only wish that she competed at her own event as Andrea is so much fun to watch!”
Andrea also incorporated her mental health background into the new event in hopes of reaching a largely overlooked population.
“Mental health issues and addiction don’t affect just one type of person; it affects all types. The cowboy world is greatly affected. Most working ranchers, farmers, cowboys and buckaroos work in remote or rural places, mostly isolated; towns are usually small with little to no services. Our intention was to bring education and resources to these folks, so they do have options,” she said.
Reflecting on the Woman of the West award, Andrea said it was humbling, especially when considering the many women working as stewards of the land, family and community.
“I had to sit with it a bit and come to realize that this award has been my best gift, because I never worked at getting it. This version of me – all-encompassing me, imperfect me – received that gift. I’ve ended up living such a blessed life!”
Kadie, who sees the event as a family effort, is proud to see her mom realize her dream in her 60s.
“Getting to see her live out her dream of doing this full-time as an adult has been such a gift because it’s not often, historically, that women get their flowers and cowboying and ranching,” Kadie said. “I’m most impressed with her care and love for our community and wanting to bring cowboy mental health and suicide prevention to the forefront of the buckaroo community,” she said.
The Buckaroo Traditions Gathering will be held Nov. 14–16 in Winnemucca at the Winnemucca Event Center. For more information, visit btgathering.com.
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