Jessica Telford
Jessica Telford – Caldwell, Idaho ($88,342)
First-time WNFR qualifier
Jessica Telford grew up on a cattle ranch in a rodeo family and joined the WPRA at age 13. From a young age she planned to make the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in barrel racing. But, as she says life happens.
While in college she met and later married her husband Jake, a professional trainer of reined cow horses and they began raising a family. Her daughters Shawny and Sierra are now 13 and 12 and are competing in rodeos and shows of their own. Jake and Jessie train between 25 and 30 outside horses and stay quite busy so her plan of making the NFR became more of a vague dream.
When the 2018 season began, her goal was to earn enough to qualify to compete at the big winter rodeos. After winning a little over $16,000 at San Antonio, Telford was ranked 10th and she stayed in the top 15 week after week. Jake encourage her to enter more rodeos, despite their busy schedule.
Telford’s main mount is Famous Cool Whip, a seven-year-old gelding she raised from her high school and college rodeo mare. At the end of the season she borrowed Connie McCormmach’s mare Shu Fire after Cool Whip got an abscess in the fall and earned nearly $20,000 riding her.
The next-to-last week of the rodeo season Telford earned two small checks so her entire season came down to the final week. She placed at seven of her final eight rodeos, crisscrossing the country from Kansas City to Omaha to Utah to California to Texas. She won nearly $4,800 that week and earned her first trip to Las Vegas.
When Telford enters the arena at the Thomas & Mack Center, she’ll be carrying on a family tradition. Her grandfather, Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame bullfighter Gene Clark fought bulls at the first National Finals Rodeo.
