After a phenomenal 2019 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo Emily Miller-Beisel gave her horses a much-deserved rest and began thinking about the new year.
It was going to be a tough act to follow, as she placed in five of the 10 rounds at the WNFR in her first qualification—winning the first and fourth rounds. Finishing second in the average race with a total time of 143.25 seconds on 10 runs and ending the year ranked third with $255,799 in earnings.
But the Weatherford, Oklahoma, cowgirl knew what was going to work for her four horses—Pipewrench, Chongo, Beau and Foxy—and set a plan for 2020.
“I finally for the first time really felt like I knew for sure what I wanted to do this season—where I wanted to go, where I didn’t want to go,” she said. “And so I actually had an extremely conservative winter, and I wanted to give Chongo plenty of time off after the finals. Ten days in a row on him, that’s a lot, and I felt like he’d earned it.”
So Beisel skipped a lot of the winter rodeos. She didn’t enter Odessa or San Angelo, Texas, and she caught a barrel at Jackson to win the rodeo. Denver didn’t treat her very well either. She remained confident though.
“I was like, my horse really loves Canada, and we had a great showing at Ponoka and Calgary last year,” she said. “So I’m going to sit back, and we’re gonna rock this thing come July, and head north.”
Since the 2020 season for the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association—the sanctioning body of the barrel racing at the WNFR—begins Oct. 1, 2019, Beisel had only been to eight rodeos by June 2020. When the previous year she’d been to 25 or 30, she said.
“Truly about a third, or fourth, as many as what I typically had, and I know I was not in the top 15,” she said. “I think I was on the 20th position and, and I think I had probably one of the lowest rodeo counts of anybody in the top 20.”
She knew some of the bigger rodeos had been good to her in the past, and was banking on more good performances, so she let her horses rest. And then COVID happened.
“Rodeo Austin, which was such a big win for me last year, that was supposed to be coming up in a couple weeks, and I really had been saving Chongo for that rodeo,” she said. “They cancel, and Houston calls everything off and other than Mercedes and several others that we’ve entered when we were supposed to be down around Houston started canceling and I’m just sitting here going, oh no, this isn’t good.”
Beisel thought maybe by April, she’d be able to go to California.
“For the first time I’d actually kind of planned to go to California,” she said. “I’ve never been to California for the month of April, just because I’ve always had set days at work.”
She planned on taking one of her younger horses, Beau, out there and seasoning him on the rodeo trail.
“I thought it would be a really great seasoning experience for him,” she said. “He’s the youngest horse that I have competed on this year and I thought, okay, well there goes California.”
But that didn’t happen. Rodeos were being canceled, leaving those farther apart and making the trips longer and more grueling.
“I went to half as many rodeos this year and I felt like I went to five times as many,” she said. “I mean it was very emotionally draining. We’d spend a lot of time behind the wheel just because you can usually cluster rodeos. If you want to go to the Dakotas or if you want to go to the northwest or Utah or Wyoming I mean you can you can hit four or five of them within a couple hours in each other and save yourself some driving miles.”
In previous years Beisel was able to hit all the bigger rodeos with smaller rodeos between to fill the gaps and make the trips worth it.
“That wasn’t happening,” she said. “We were having to drive everywhere. Over the Fourth of July, I was in Prescott, Arizona, the night of the first. I finished my second round at midnight, and I had to be in Roundup, Montana by 9 a.m. the morning of the third.”
The travel schedule was not for the faint of heart.
“I’m telling you it was tough. It was a lot of miles. It was not the plan I had in mind,” she said. “It separated the girls from the women. For sure.”
Plus Beisel was planning a wedding in the middle of the pandemic.
“I had this brilliant idea in May of 2018 when we got engaged and I was like, I’m going to schedule this wedding a year and a half out, so there’s no stress, plenty of time to plan,” she said. “Then here comes 2020 in all of its lovely work.”
It ended up being pretty stressful and, to be honest, she said, they weren’t real sure they’d get to have the wedding they planned.
“All year we just had no idea if we were going to be able to have our family,” she said. “My mom has a huge family.”
For a good portion of the planning she was uncertain if it would happen and there was a lot of family that wasn’t able to come because of COVID.
“There was a lot of family that weren’t able come—just high risk people and I totally understand that and that was our stance on it,” she said. “If you’re high risk and uncomfortable, please don’t come. We’ll celebrate it at a different time.”
But it ended up being a great celebration for Beisel and her husband, Austin. Now she’s looking forward to running at her second WNFR in Arlington, Texas, Dec. 3 to 12 at Globe Life Field. She comes in ranked 12th with $42,388 won at 47 rodeos.
She’s doing as much homework as she can “without really knowing anything,” she said. This is the first rodeo to be held at Globe Life Field.
“We’re super thankful to be there. It’s a phenomenal stadium,” she said. “We’re going to make history and we’re going to be the first girls to compete there in Arlington, Texas, and in that arena and so that’s exciting in itself.”
Ground conditions, how the arena will be set up or if there will be an alleyway, was all unknowns for Beisel in early November. But one thing she does know is everyone competing at this year’s WNFR will be rookies.
“But the thing is, it is the same for all 15 of us,” she said. “We’re all kind of rookies this year. So that’ll be interesting to see how it pans out and who can adapt to what the set up will be.”
Beisel is thankful she was able to compete at the American rodeo held in AT&T Stadium in March 2020 as it’s a similar set up.
“I think that there are some aspects of the stadium—the dirt, the wide open setup that will help give me some reassurance on what to expect at Globe Life Field,” she said.
She’s also familiar with the area around the two arenas, and that will make her feel more comfortable driving to and from the rodeo.
“The most stressful part that people often over look is where to keep your horse,” she said.
She wants a spot for them to be able to rest and keep comfortable.
“That’s a really big factor to me and that was something that I was fortunate last year. I found a really nice place and my horses were able to rest really well. It was close so I didn’t have a lot of miles on going back and forth.”
Arlington doesn’t have a lot of places close like competitors had in Las Vegas. She might have to find a place an hour away and fight traffic to get in and out of the rodeo.
“We’re taking all that into consideration and trying to figure out what the best plan is for them,” she said.
There’s no doubt Beisel will have all four of her horses prepared, and she plans to primarily ride Beau and Chongo. She said it will be the first time the barrel racing at the WNFR will be run on a standard pattern, meaning it’s 90 feet between the first two barrels and 105 feet between barrels 1 and 2 to the third. The Thomas & Mack arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, has a much smaller pattern.
“It’s going to be a little bit harder on the horses I feel like after a couple runs,” she said. “I’m fortunate I can rotate. Lots of girls have back ups and I’m not the only one.”
Many barrel racers tend to want to stay on their main horse as much as they can to try and win as much money as possible.
“But ultimately in the same sentence, I will utilize the horse that I have and, yes, I mean it’s a blessing to have a couple horses to choose from,” she said. “If I even rotate just between Chongo and Beau it minimizes their runs in half, if I run each of them five times.”
That’s pretty doable for her horses, and they’re used to rodeoing. They haven’t had many runs leading up to the WNFR, but Beisel feels they’ll be ready to run and is thankful for the fresh legs under her mounts. Every barrel racer who has qualified has a different game plan.
“The fun thing about this is everybody has a different journey and everybody knows their horse inside and out what works for them in their team, so there’s no really right or wrong way to approach it,” she said. “It’s just know your animal and have confidence you know what you’re doing.”
For more information about the WNFR and results, visit www.wpra.com.
Kylene Scott can be reached at 620-227-1804 or [email protected].
