"I come from a rodeo family," she said. Her family in Lehi had firm roots in rodeo and her father, Gary Cooper, had a rodeo career that spanned over 30 years.

Larsen has also been involved with the Utah Women's Rodeo Association, National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association and National High School Rodeo Association.

But she's adept in the business world, too.

Larsen has more than 20 years of experience consulting and providing training to such Fortune 500 companies as IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and Bell South.

Larsen says she looks forward to heading the Ogden organization.

It takes a lot of volunteers to pull off Ogden Pioneer Days, she said. There are 16 directors of committees and 25 to 35 volunteers under each director.

In 2006, the Ogden Pioneer Days Rodeo was nominated by the PRCA for the Best Rodeo of the Year Award — a first for Ogden.

Larsen said Pioneer Days, once a city-supported event, has been self-supporting for about five years now, under the umbrella of the heritage foundation.

The 2008 event will feature some new events — but Larsen said they will be surprises to announce later.

She doesn't see Ogden's celebration as second fiddle to Salt Lake's Days of '47, either.

"It's like comparing apples and oranges," she said, explaining Ogden's rodeo is a traditional outdoor event, while Salt Lake's is in an indoor arena.

Also, Ogden's Pioneer Days is home to the Miss Rodeo Utah Pageant, supports a fundraiser for breast cancer research as part of Wrangler's "Tough Enough to Wear Pink" campaign and celebrates National Day of the Cowboy, where one resident from each of Utah's 29 counties is honored for contributions to the Western way of life.

Up to 80,000 people show up to watch Ogden's Pioneer Days parade on July 24. Some 25,000 or more go to the rodeo.

"This is wholesome entertainment," she said. "One of my goals is to re-create this as a tradition for families. ... We don't want to lose our Western heritage."

She's sad that much of the younger generation has lost a connection with Utah's Western heritage — but hopes to be the spark to rekindle the legacy.

"We'll bring the old and the new," she said.

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E-mail: lynn@desnews.com