Don Lamont is proof that the magic of ranch sorting is its members as he turns his passion for the sport into a mission to support Cook Children’s Hospital.
From the Cattle Ranch to the Sorting Pens
Don and Ronda Lamont run a small herd of Black Angus cattle on their ranch near Albany, Texas, where they were in the habit of saddling up to work cows or just hit the trails. But when Don got laid up, ironically, he found ranch sorting.
“I got bucked off a horse at my ranch and broke my collarbone and three ribs because that ground out there is rocky,” he said. “I’m sitting there watching Cowboy Channel, and I saw ranch sorting. I called my wife and said, ‘I know exactly what we’re doing from now on with our horses.’”
Don, who turned 66 in October, healed up and hauled down to Glen Rose to compete in his first RSNC ranch sorting at an event produced by TR Performance Horse’s Tommy and Laura Roberson in 2021.
“We took our two ranch horses,” Don explained. “We didn’t know anything. Just walked in and started riding; knew absolutely nothing.”
Though he didn’t know it at the time, the event was a pivotal moment for Don, who has since developed a close friendship with the Robersons. In the same time, ranch sorting has become a shared passion for Don, Ronda and many of their 24 grandchildren. And today, it’s the platform on which Don and the Robersons plan to raise $500,000 to help other children in their battles against cancer.
The Cowtown Showdown Origins
In conversation with Don, it doesn’t take long to recognize his love of family. Even at the Cinch RSNC World Finals each year, it’s hard to pick Don for a partner—most of his rides are already promised to his grandkids if they’re competing. And so, when his first wife, Leslie, died of breast cancer when his daughters were still between the ages of 4 and 18, it left an understandable mark.
“That’s why we’ve made this thing non-profit for all of us,” Don stated about the Cinch RSNC show he’s producing in partnership with TR Performance Horses on Jan. 19, at Fort Worth Stockyard’s historic Cowtown Coliseum. “Nobody is making any money. It’s all going to Cook Children’s and their oncology department.”
When the limited $1,000-entries opened to the event on Sept. 1, all 100 spots filled within two hours with another 50 on the waiting list. The plan, to date, is to pay $100,000 to the top seven teams and for everything else to be donated. Even the Cowtown Coliseum is on board and contributing their ticket sales.
“We’re going to do a Calcutta for the Top 10, also,” Don added. “So, nobody is making a dime. We’ll pay the bills we need to pay, and then everything else goes to the kids. That’s the plan.”
Scheduled for Martin Luther King Day, just on the heels of the kickoff to the Fort Worth Stock Show and a few days before the 2026 PRCA tournament rodeo on Jan. 23. The ranch sorting will feature a single All Levels class and, with $50,000 added going to the top four teams, the winners are looking to take home a check for $40,000—a totally unprecedented payout in the sport.
Even beyond the payout, it will be an event unlike any other. In addition to the food and cash bar, ticketed audience members will also be treated to a Celebrity Ranch Sorting exhibition, which so far has spots allotted to film stars and producers, as well as bull riders and other ProRodeo athletes, though the roster is still being built. Then, fans and contestants alike will get to enjoy the rest of their evening with a live music concert right in the arena.
Putting Ranch Sorting on the Map
In 2024, Don closed down the year by putting on a private New Year’s Eve rodeo at the Cowtown Coliseum that featured Taylor Sheridan of Yellowstone fame as a competitor.
“You wouldn’t believe the show last year,” Don posited. “I mean, we had pyrotechnics, a Flag Girl, music. The whole deal.”
His vision for this event is similar, but he suspects it’s going to be a bit of a moment for the sport of ranch sorting, too.
“I’m hoping it’s one of the biggest exposure opportunities for the sport,” Don said. “I know ranch sorting has been around a long time, but it hasn’t quite jumped over the top yet and really been something special in the same way the other disciplines have. I think this will really help put us on the map, so to speak. People are going to see us.”
For anyone wanting to cheer the ranch sorters on from afar, log into Ride TV to watch the livestream, and don’t forget to visit Cook Children’s site to make a personal contribution to the fundraiser.
For anyone in town for the rodeo, tickets are available on the Cowtown Coliseum website starting at just $32, and it will be money well spent given how much entertainment will be offered in the name of helping kids fight the disease that takes more children’s lives than any other disease in the United States.
“We’re going to have a huge audience,” Don said. “People are going to be affected and see what’s going on.”
The Man Behind the Mission
Don Lamont won’t spend a lot of time talking about his professional endeavors when there’s more important things like family and more important news like raising a half million dollars with a benefit ranch sorting, but he’s built an impressive network as a result of his career endeavors, which began at the tender age of about 8 years old, according to a story he told in 2020 on Episode 40 of the “Dadicated.com” podcast.
“My father had some bottles of shampoo … they were in a box marked not for sale,” Don tells the podcast’s host, Philipp Hartmann. “I asked my dad if I could have them… and I went door to door and sold the bottles of shampoo for $1 a piece. I came back with a fist full of money and asked my dad for more.”
About a dozen years later, Don married Leslie and became a Girl Dad to six daughters in the years that followed. When he married Ronda after Leslie’s passing, he gained another daughter. Meanwhile, he also owns and operates five different businesses, which makes him a master of time management.
“Delegate. And when you delegate, really let it go. That’s the hard part for entrepreneurs: we want to delegate and then we want to look over their shoulder. We really cripple our people by not giving them the freedom to make mistakes or successes.
“I have a firm belief,” he continues in the interview. “If you empower the average person with confidence and with the ability and opportunity to succeed, the average person can do extraordinary things.”
And it’s that sort of belief that, over the years, has compelled Don to great acts of service such as donating a suite at the Rangers baseball stadium to the Children’s Miracle Network and Make-A-Wish Foundation. Or even when he piloted his personal bush plane with supplies to support the aftermath of this summer’s horrific flooding in Kerr County. From the days following Leslie’s untimely death, Don knows firsthand the impact a single person can have on an entire family’s trajectory, and he’s never forgotten it.
The Next Generation of Ranch Sorters
Now with his daughters grown and with families of their own, Don and Ronda get to invest their free time in the next generation.
“Three of them compete regularly,” Don said proudly of his 24 grandkids who range in age from infant to 18. “We were all at Cheyenne this year and riding. And me and two of my grandkids won first place in the novice team penning there. We’d never done team penning before, and we wind up winning it!”
Don and Ronda have also swapped their two ranch horses for a string of nine ranch sorting horses.
“We have a covered arena that’s lighted, and we have big fans in it,” Don said, explaining some recent improvements they’ve made at the ranch. “We have a sorting pen set up, and we have cattle, so when everybody comes to see Papa, we all go ranch sorting. Maybe five of them have won buckles in the Beginner class. I’ve had three of them in the Top 10 at the World Finals in the last two years, at least.”
For a man who has shaken plenty of hands from the Who’s Who crowd, Don doesn’t lose sight of the most important parts.
“It’s all about the memories.”
With a 100-year history and a network of more than 60 locations throughout Texas, Cook Children’s Hematology and Oncology Center is uniquely poised to meet the needs of the children battling childhood leukemias, lymphomas, neuroblastomas and sickle cell disease, for example. Cook Children’s remains committed to their “promise to improve the well-being of every child in [their] care.” You can contribute to their cause here.
This article appears in the Fall 2025 issue of The Ranch Sorter.
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