06/28/2025
Mental health. Depression. Alcoholism. Sexual abuse. Addiction. Anxiety.
Cowboys go to great lengths to avoid these words. It’s basic cowboy courtesy: “We simply don’t talk about it.”
But maybe it’s time for this to change. That’s the vision for many who have seen the effects of ignoring this problem, including Justin Reichert and Nicole Grady.
“I’ve seen too many friends die,” Reichert says. “Too many guys have either drank themselves to death, shot themselves or ran their truck off a cliff.”
Reichert joined forces with Grady to pave a trail for authentic cowboy connection at The Outside Circle Show in Elko, Nevada, to address the mental health crisis in the cowboy community. The cowboy music and poetry show, which has since 2014 featured cowboys who live the lifestyle, included a mental health panel in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Inside the atrium at the Stockmen’s Casino and Hotel, cowboys and cowboy gals gathered in January for the second time to speak with their peers in a sobering but honest plea for conversation about depression, addiction and su***de within the community. It was a candid discussion about mental health and addiction in the lives of cowboys.
Some are slow to engage in unfamiliar conversations, but neither Reichert nor Grady will let outside perspectives sway their resolve to address the issue.
“We’re not taught to process emotions,” Reichert says. “We’re not taught to talk about our s**t, so we don’t really know how, and I think a lot of people are going through this, a lot of men especially, and then cowboys are even worse.
“In the cowboy community, it’s not cool to talk about your feelings,” he continues. “I’ve realized that none of us have really learned how to process anger or sadness or grief, and all that manifests into something. Watching so many people in the community die, or even they’re not dead, but they’re not living. In the cowboy community, there’s a lot of unhealed little boys hiding behind buckles and hats and our egos. I’m learning I’m one of those boys, and it’s time to try to process some of those emotions positively.”
Read more here ==>> https://whmag.co/vjo
Photo by Andrea Van Leuven courtesy Nicole Grady
