Tammy Fischer
Tammy Fischer – Ledbetter, Texas ($91,277)
7-time WNFR qualifier
Tammy Fischer hasn’t qualified for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo since 2011. After finishing 24th last year, the Ledbetter, Texas, cowgirl returns to the Thomas & Mack Center ranked 10th in 2018. She is nearing the $1 million mark in career earnings and, with a successful 10 days in Las Vegas, she could clear that milestone.
The former teacher and librarian with a master’s degree in library science from Sam Houston State University is traveling partner and mentor to fellow Texan Taci Bettis. Last year Tammy was in Las Vegas to support Taci at her first finals and this year they will both be competing.
By early June, Tammy had not cracked the top 20 in the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association (WPRA) world championship standings, but she made up a lot of ground over the Cowboy Christmas period around the Fourth of July. She was the biggest winner of all barrel racers during that period, winning more than $29,000 without a single first-place finish. Her total Cowboy Christmas earnings were more than half of her 2017 total season earnings.
Cowboy Christmas vaulted her to 15th and she stayed in the 11th to 20th “bubble” position until her clutch performance at the Justin Playoffs in Puyallup, Washington, where she won nearly $7,500.
Tammy rides an eight-year-old mare LK Sheza Hayday that she calls Ziva. She has sold her younger backup horses so Ziva carried the load all season. Tammy got Ziva from fellow barrel racer Kappy Allen two years ago in a partial trade for MP Quick Money, the grey gelding that carried her to the NFR in 2011.
She and her husband Brian will be busy in Las Vegas. Their eight-year-old daughter Sydney qualified for the Junior NFR in barrel racing before July 4 and had to wait a few months to see if Mom would also be barrel racing in Las Vegas in December.
Talent with horses runs in the family. Tammy’s mother Peggy is a former racehorse trainer. Her father, the late Jack Dube, trained race horses and her sister Jackie Dube Jatzlou trains barrel horses and has qualified for the WNFR twice in barrel racing.
Tammy’s son Riley Key died in an automobile accident in 2009 at age 18. A scholarship in Riley’s memory has awarded $1,000 scholarships to 15 or more high school students each year for the past eight years. Tammy produces a barrel race annually in March to raise money for the scholarships.
