Gail Hughbanks Woener was born in northeastern Colorado and reared on a ranch homesteaded by her great-grandparents.  She was a constant companion to her cowboy grandfather, who taught her to break horses, compete in horse shows, and work cattle.  An admitted “tomboy, she spent as much time outside as possible.  Her favorite pastime, off the ranch, was attending area rodeos, occasionally as a participant, but mainly as an avid fan.  She has spent the last twenty years researching and interviewing rodeo people.  Traveling extensively, she has attended historic rodeo places such as Calgary, Pendleton, Cheyenne, Denver, Rowell, and Sidney, to name just a few.  She even attended a Cossack rodeo in the Ukraine in 1996. In the late fall of  2006 she went to Argentina where she rode hoses with the gauchos.  Her first book on rodeo history, Fearless Funnymen: The History of the Rodeo Clown, was published in 1993. Belly Full of Bedsprings: The History of Bronc Riding and Cowboy Up! The History of Bull Riding were her next two books. She and illustrator Gail Gandolfi published a children’s book, Charley & Amanda Meet Rusty the Rodeo Clown, as the beginning of a series introducing wee ones, ages four to ten, to people in rodeo in a fun manner. 

Every other year she holds a Rodeo Clown Reunion to honor retired funnymen and bullfighters. National Geographic, TNN, and OLN “Cowboy” have covered the event for special television programs.

A member of Western Writers of America, she has contributed to other books and has penned numerous articles for a select number of periodicals, including The American Cowboy, Western Horseman, Persimmon Hill, Cowboys and Country, ProRodeo Sports News, and The Ketch Pen (magazine of the Rodeo Historical Society). She also writes an occasional article on rodeo history for various magazines and periodicals in Australia , Canada , and France .

She is the resident rodeo historian for the Rodeo Attitude Program. She  writes a column entitled “Behind the Chutes & Elsewhere” for their website, www.rodeoattitude.com, which covers positive events happening to rodeo people, as well as biographies and stories about rodeo persona, past and present.  From this column she receives and responds to e-mails and request from around the world regarding rodeo and its history.

 Gail is chairman of a Rodeo Historical Society program gathering oral histories of cowboys and cowgirls, which is housed at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City .

Gail attended Colorado Women’s college in Denver and has more than twenty years’ experience in personnel.  She and husband Cliff ranched in Central. Texas, raising Texas Longhorn cattle, Appaloosas and quarter horses, and now reside in Austin, Texas, on Lake Travis.