ALIEN BEES

I have been looking into geting a set of AB's but just told that they would not be good for rodeo work. This being because of the fan on them and the dust at a rodeo. Has anyone used them in this type of place and have the worked well for you?

I would have to say - ask Alien Bees customer service about that one.
They do come with a 2-year warranty.

This is one case where I probably have to agree knowing what they look like on the inside it might not be the best thing to have them in a highly dusty environment. I figure they will survive most uses, but if rodeos haven't changed much in 20 years, I seem to remember a lot of dust kicked up (more if it was windy). I figured I could take them to the beach (using some care as to power cord placement), but had not considered a dusty environment before.

I can't see the dust being a serious problem if you blow it out after a session. Ordinary dirt is not very conductive and should not harm the circuitry in the flash unit. It would be a good idea, however, to talk to AB's Customer Service to get their opinion too.

Additional idea - you might get by with covering the flash unit with a fine-weave cloth that would let some air flow but filter out the majority of the dust.

Keep the modelling lights turned off, and you eliminate a great source of the heat that normally needs to be dissipated from the flash units.

I suspect you would need the most powerful lights you can afford for rodeo work, as the distance between the flash and the subjects won't be very close. The best setup would be a whole mess of high powered flash units mounted up high (on light poles?) with radio receivers on each to trigger them. You'd use a matching radio transmitter on the camera to send a signal to the receivers.

What skip said.