The Montana State rodeo team began fall practice Tuesday at the Gallatin County Fairgrounds arena, where the chutes have not moved since 1972 but the property lines have. A four-story apartment complex now looms beyond the left bucking chutes. The smell of espresso from the new roastery drifts across the parking lot where stock trailers used to park.

Head coach Dale Hargrove watched his roughstock riders from the announcer’s stand, a laminated roster clipped to the railing. “The arena dirt is the same,” Hargrove said. “Everything around it changed. We just try to keep the inside of the fence honest.”

Senior saddle bronc rider Jace Metzger of Havre cinched his flank strap on a pickup man’s horse while a barista in an apron watched from the top rail, iced oat latte in hand. Metzger nodded at her. She nodded back. Neither seemed surprised.

“You ride the horse, not the neighborhood,” said Metzger, dust already settling on his Resistol. He has qualified for the College National Finals twice. His father drove the stock truck from Chouteau County. The drive takes four hours now. It took three and a half when Metzger was a freshman.

Freshman barrel racer Kylie Sorenson of Three Forks ran the pattern on a borrowed mare, kicking up the same dust that coated her mother’s boots twenty years ago. Her time was clean. The mare didn’t spook at the construction crane swinging steel beams over the outfield fence.

Assistant coach Marv Bender checked the timed-event box. He nodded once. The line held. The chute held. The arena held.