HASTINGS, NEB. – (August 18, 2024) – South Dakota barrel racer Jessica Routier loves Hastings, Nebraska.
For the third time in five years, the Buffalo, South Dakota woman won the barrel racing at the Oregon Trail Rodeo, this time with a 17.25 second run. She won the 2020 and 2021 titles as well.
“It was just a really nice, smooth run,” she said. “I tried to stay out of my horse’s way and let her work, and she did great. Sometimes she likes to crowd the first barrel a little bit (running the chance of tipping it over and incurring a five second penalty) so I tried to let her go really straight at it and pick her spot. She did amazing. I’m really proud of her.”
She was aboard her second horse Nicki, whose registered name is High On Smoothies. Nicki’s main job the last four years has been to be a “best friend” to Missy, Routier’s more famous and well-known horse, but due to injury, Missy stayed home and Nicki made the trip.
Nicki is special to Routier; she is a daughter of Especials Smoothie, whose barn name is Smoothie, a 1995 mare that carried Routier to her first eleven of eighteen Circuit Finals and her first circuit title in 2010.
Ranked nineteenth in the Women’s Pro Rodeo Association world standings, Routier is four spots out of the coveted top fifteen, the women who qualify for pro rodeo’s world championship in December, the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo.
The rodeo season ends in six weeks, on Sept. 30, and to make it to the Wrangler NFR, Routier will need to rodeo steadily.
She’s letting the health of her horse Missy determine how much she will travel to compete.
“I want to make sure (Missy) is 100 percent before I get back on her,” she said. “That’s my main concern, her health and well-being.
“If she’s feeling good, we’ll go to the end. (The mare) is tough but I try not to take advantage of her toughness, either.”
Missy, whose registered name is Fiery Miss West, is a thirteen-year-old palomino who has carried Routier to each of her six Wrangler NFR qualifications. Missy is owned by Gary Westergren, Lincoln, Neb.
In the steer wrestling, a Missourian won the event.
Mason Couch, Bronaugh, Mo., a 2023 graduate of Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant, turned in a time of 4.3 seconds, three-tenths of a second faster than the number two man, Jarek VanPetten.
Ranked thirteenth in the Prairie Circuit standings, one hole out of qualifying for the Prairie Circuit Finals Rodeo in Duncan, Okla., in October, Couch knows he’d better win some money to be in the top twelve when the rodeo season ends.
He got a late start to his rodeo season, having had pectoral surgery last September and not being cleared to compete till March of this year.
After six months out, he had to knock some rust off. It took a while.
“It feels like just this month I’m starting to come back.”
In the bull riding, the top score went to Hector Cardona, Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico.
The 35-year-old bull rider turned in a 72 point ride on the Korkow Rodeos bull Dreamer.
Because the bull he’d drawn didn’t cooperate in the chutes, he was awarded a re-ride on Dreamer.
“I really didn’t know anything about the bull,” he said. “I just tried to stay on. I’ve been practicing a lot and I think all my hard work paid off.”
Cardona is a three-time Mexico national champion bull rider (2006, 2013, 2023). He’s rodeoed off and on in the U.S. and Canada and qualified for the 2017 PBR Finals-Canada.
He’s gone back and forth between his home country and the States, and while in Mexico, has been an instructor at youth bull riding camps.
The camps “basically put the fundamentals down for the kids,” he said. American bucking bulls are more “rank” – more difficult to ride- than are Mexican bulls, and he helps youth prepare for the difference in bulls.
Cardona won the NFR Open in Colorado Springs in June.
Other champions at the rodeo include bareback rider Andy Gingerich, Aberdeen, S.D. (75 points); tie-down roper Kason Dyer, Ottawa, Kan. (8.9 seconds); saddle bronc rider Cooper Thatcher, Darbalara, New South Wales (82.5 points); breakaway roper Anna Brisbane, Kearney, Mo. (2.4 seconds); and team ropers Jon Peterson, Belle Fourche, S.D./Cash Hetzel, Lemmon, S.D. and Corben Culley, Muse, Okla./Gus Mosley, Mineral Wells, Texas (5.4 seconds each).
During the rodeo, the 2024 Miss Oregon Trail Rodeo queen was crowned.
Kinley Olson, Ainsworth, won the title. A sophomore at Ainsworth High School, she is involved in FFA and has a small herd of black Angus cattle. She is the daughter of Kristin Olson.
During the August 17 performance, a “big check” in the amount of $2722 was presented to the Morrison Cancer Center. Monies were raised through voluntary donations at the rodeo and go to the Cancer Center’s “From the Heart” fund. Since 2007, the rodeo has raised more than $47,000 for the fund.
For more information on this year’s rodeo, visit the fairgrounds website at AdamsCountyFairgrounds.com.
Find full results here: https://ruralradio.com/rrn/news/final-results-oregon-trail-rodeo/
