With a number of rodeos happening this summer across the state, we spoke with the Great Lakes Circuit Director for the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association, Becky Nix who originates from central Wisconsin. “I’ve been a professional barrel racer since 2000,” she explained. Nix filled a vacant spot as director after the previous title holder left mid-term and she was recently reelected.
The time period around Fourth of July is huge for rodeo athletes and that’s why they call it “Cowboy Christmas,” because there are so many rodeos to choose from and they have to decide which ones are worth the drive. “As a competitor, we look at added money, arena, ground conditions, rodeo committees,” Nix said. “The roughstock riders are looking at stock contractors. They know the horses they want to get on, they know the bulls.”
When entering a rodeo, Nix explained that contestants get to sign up for two preferences. This means that they choose two of the performances they’d most like to be in during the rodeo and then they have to wait for their callback to see what slot they got. “You tell the entry system what your preference is and then you pray hard for 24 hours and then you get your callbacks,” Nix said. The default preference the athlete will get if they don’t get one of the two they chose is called slack. This is the part of the rodeo that’s done without a crowd, which still counts for points and placings, but no audience.
The athletes that perform at rodeos full-time are only allowed to count up to 100 rodeos toward their world standings. Nix said that yes, some will go to more than that in a year, but before they get out in the arena, they have to decide if their ride is counting toward their standings or not. This gets tricky because sometimes an athlete may do very well, but they chose not to count it and other times it’s the opposite.
For her and the other women in the Professional Rodeo Association, she said that it’s rare for them to go over 100 rodeos because it’s a lot of miles on their horses, a lot of running, and as she said, “a horse only has so many runs in their life and you want to pick and choose where you use them.” Even though horses can start barrel racing professionally as four-year-olds, after a while it takes a lot out of them with the traveling, just like any other athlete.
She said that contrary to popular belief, the rodeo industry in Wisconsin’s pretty large, and there are plenty of opportunities for youth to get involved. “It’s a huge thing here. The Little Britches (of Wisconsin) has the state finals in August…They’ll have 1,100 runs in one weekend,” Nix explained. For kids ages six to 17, you can check out the Little Britches website. For those that are a little bit older, there’s the High School Rodeo Association, along with a junior high association and a state association.
“It’s kind of perceived that rodeo is a southern sport, it’s not. You travel around, you have the professionals and you have the armature associations. It’s a really strong sport.” – Great Lakes Circuit Director for the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association, Becky Nix
You can listen to the full interview with Nix on our ag podcast page.
