TO GO WITH AFP STORY by Camille CAMDESSUS, "Wyoming cowboys open up about addiction and suicide"
Shad Wilsey holds onto the reins of his horse during a bronco riding competition at the Tom Horn Days Cowboy Rendezvous rodeo as he rides past a sign for No More Empty Saddles in support of mental health in Bosler, Wyoming on August 13, 2022. - Wyoming is frontier country. Its half-million-or-so people are spread thinly over tens of thousands of square miles of farmland, prairie and mountain range. "Cowboys are supposed to be tough, we're born and raised to be independent and not rely on anyone, and a lot of stuff we do is on our own," says Rand Selle, founder of No More Empty Saddles,. "We don't have that communication skill to go elsewhere and talk and share our emotions and I kind of think a lot of us struggle with that." All too often, this bottling up ends in tragedy. "We deal a lot with friends and family that are cowboys that have passed away, either by suicide or have an alcohol or drug addiction." (Photo by Patrick T. FALLON / AFP)