| photography by Alex Lepe |In 2002 Kristin Jaworski, a feisty and determined Arizona native, took the reins of what would become one of the biggest tourism generators in the City of Fort Worth. She was 25 years old and the first woman to hold the position of Trail Boss of the internationally known Fort Worth Herd. To say the least, it was a daunting task.
The fascination of rowdy cowboys and cattle drives of the Old West is kept alive in Fort Worth through the Fort Worth Herd, the world's only twice-daily and 352-day-a-year cattle drive. Created in 1999 as part of the city's sesquicentennial celebration, the Herd made its first cattle drive to the Fort Worth Stockyards Historic District with a sundry team of drovers dressed in authentic 19th century clothing and riding horses mounted with period-correct saddles.
For the last 15 years, cowhands have driven the longhorns along East Exchange Avenue, recreating a time when the great herds thundered through the dusty streets of Fort Worth on their way to market.
Jaworski wears many hats in her position as trail boss. She manages people, Texas Longhorns and horses on a daily basis. Raised around the livestock industry and exposed to tourism at the Grand Canyon at an early age, she found that marketing was her passion while attending Tarleton State University when she moved to Texas in 1997. Jaworski earned her bachelor's degree in marketing and a master's degree in management and leadership at Tarleton.
"Kristin leads that team, and she runs a tight herd," says Bob Jameson, president and CEO of the Fort Worth Convention & Visitors Bureau. "She is very conscientious about the care of the animals. She's focused on the safety of the drovers that move those cattle back and forth, and she's also conscious of the fact that during the course of a year, we'll have 800,000 people on the street sidewalks watching that take place. That's a lot of people and a real testament to our city's history and visitor experience. It absolutely drives tourism."
The favorite part of her seven-day-a-week job, Jaworski says: "The thing that keeps me going every day is there's never a dull moment. These steers tell a story that we get to share with visitors that come to the Fort Worth Stockyards from all over the world. And it's a privilege when I get an opportunity to interact with the visitors because they're so appreciative that they have chosen this place as their destination."
The funniest story about the longhorns, Jaworski says: "I actually had somebody walk up to the steers and ask, "What are they?" I explained they are a breed of cattle. "But what are they? Are they deer? Are they elk?" they asked." Jaworski says laughing, "I take for granted that people know they're a breed of cattle, but because they have horns, people think they have antlers. This is such a fun job."
The Friends of the Fort Worth Herd is led by the nonprofit support organization's president and cowgirl icon, Pam Minick.
"Kristin's job as trail boss is quite complex," says Minick. "She not only has to look after the feed and care of her 18 to 20 one-ton children, but she also has to juggle the personalities and supervise the chores of the drovers."
Sixteen of the Herd's 18 cowhands are men. "It's always been a predominantly male environment," Jaworski says. "There weren't a lot of females in the cattle drives back in the 1800s."
In her early years as trail boss, the more tenured drovers tested her, and during the first few years, she had more firings than new hires, she says.
"A lot of people think it's an easy job to ride a horse every day," Minick says. "But keeping a dependable group of drovers, when they are required to ride in 100-plus degree days and below freezing temperatures, really takes some skill and kid gloves."
It's a tough job, Jaworski says. "We're not only cleaning up 17,000 pounds of manure a month, but we're putting out hay, building fence, hauling cattle and doctoring. We're doing things just like you'd do in any livestock operation."
Jaworski has served on the board of the Fort Worth Stockyards Business Association since 2003 and served as president from 2007-2011. She also serves on several of the Stockyard's special event committees.
Jaworski lives in Tolar, just southwest of Fort Worth, where she raises quarter horses and Hereford cattle.
