What Does the Bucking Horse and Rider (Steamboat) Logo Mean?
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If you’ve spent any time in Wyoming, you’ve most probably seen it. The bucking horse and rider. It’s on every license plate in the state and across almost every piece of UW gear in the store. It’s one of those symbols that feels like it’s always been there.
But it didn’t come out of nowhere. The Wyoming bucking horse logo traces back to a real horse. A black gelding with a broken nose who became one of the most famous bucking broncs in rodeo history. His name was Steamboat.
Most people assume the bucking horse on Wyoming’s license plate and the one on UW’s uniforms share the same origin. They don’t. And that’s where the story gets interesting.
Who Was Steamboat?
Steamboat was born around 1901 on a ranch between Laramie and Bosler. He was a black gelding with three white stockings and a temperament that made him a headache and nearly impossible to ride.
He got his name from the whistling sound he made when he breathed. A broken nose caused the noise, and it stuck with him for life. Cowboys who encountered him said you could hear him before you saw him.
What made Steamboat different from other broncs wasn’t just that he bucked. It was how he bucked. He swapped ends, twisted mid-air and kicked his front and hind legs in opposite directions. He was known for sunfishing, a move where the horse launches sideways and turns its belly away from the ground. He always bucked when mounted. He never quit. Very few riders ever stayed on him to the whistle.
By the early 1900s, Steamboat had built a reputation that stretched well beyond Wyoming. He became a regular at Cheyenne Frontier Days, where crowds came as much to watch him as the cowboys trying to ride him. He was later inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame, the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and the Cheyenne Frontier Days Hall of Fame.
He died in 1914. But what he left behind turned out to be bigger than any ride.
The Photo That Started It All
In 1903, a cowboy named Guy Holt climbed onto Steamboat’s back at the Albany County Fair in Laramie. Someone with a camera caught the moment. That single photograph would go on to define one of the most recognizable logos in college athletics.
The image shows Holt mid-ride, holding on as Steamboat does what Steamboat did best. It’s raw and unposed. Just a cowboy and a horse doing what both were known for.
Nearly two decades later, UW equipment manager Deane Hunton came across the photo. He traced the image by hand and turned it into a logo for the university’s athletic teams. That was the early 1920s. No branding agency or design committee. Just a hand-traced photograph of a real ride on a real horse.
That’s how Steamboat became the face of the University of Wyoming.
The State Symbol Is a Different Story
Here’s where things get commonly confused. The bucking horse on Wyoming’s license plate didn’t come from the same place as UW’s logo. It has its own origin that has nothing to do with Steamboat.
In 1918, First Sgt. George N. Ostrom was stationed in France with the 148th Field Artillery Regiment during World War I. He had brought along a horse named Redwing, purchased years earlier at a rodeo near Sheridan. When the regiment held a contest for a unit emblem, Ostrom painted a picture of Redwing bucking with a cowboy on his back. The design won and was painted on equipment and vehicles across the unit.
That image followed Wyoming’s soldiers home. But the version most people recognize today came later.
In 1935, Secretary of State Lester Hunt was tasked with creating a unique design for Wyoming’s license plates. He commissioned Denver artist Allen True to draw it. True’s version depicted a different rider altogether: Lander cowboy and rodeo stunt rider Stub Farlow. Hunt himself said the horse was “no particular horse.”
The design hit plates in 1936 and hasn’t left since. It’s now the longest-running license plate motif in the world.
So while UW’s logo is rooted in Steamboat and Guy Holt’s 1903 ride, the state’s version grew out of a WWI contest and a Denver artist’s rendering of a Lander cowboy. Same spirit. Different origins.
What It Represents Today
The Steamboat Wyoming logo has been around for more than a century. It’s outlasted redesigns and the kind of cultural shifts that retire most symbols long before they reach that mark.
What keeps it around isn’t the design itself; it’s what it stands for. Wyoming calls itself the Cowboy State for a reason. The bucking horse and rider captures something real about this place: grit and a refusal to be tamed. Steamboat embodied that literally, and the logo carries it forward.
For UW, the connection runs even deeper. This isn’t a mascot that came out of nowhere. It’s rooted in a real horse and a real moment that happened minutes away from where the campus stands today. That’s what you’re wearing when you see it on a jersey or a sweatshirt.
If you’re looking to carry a piece of that history with you, the University Store has a full lineup of gear featuring the bucking horse and rider. Browse what’s available online or get in touch with us if you need help finding something.