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Tracy Nowlin

Tracy Nowlin – Nowata, Okla. ($90,496)
First-time WNFR qualifier

Tracy Nowlin has never been to Las Vegas, but after more than three decades as a professional barrel racer she’s not only going there – she will be riding down the alleyway at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Shoulder surgery last fall meant Nowlin got off to a slow start to the season. Although she won some money at the winter rodeos, she was not even among the top 20 in mid-June. Nowlin finished the season strong. She earned more than $10,000 over Labor Day weekend, vaulting from 17th to 13th and secured her WNFR berth after she won $4,1209 the final weekend of the season.

The 2017 Prairie Circuit Champion competed at 79 rodeos this season riding DJG Madison, better known as Dolly Jo. Nowlin bought the now 12-year-old bay mare four years ago from an ad on Facebook as a potential calf roping horse for her son Ty.

She soon determined that Dolly Jo wasn’t what Ty needed for a calf horse, but the seller – Shawn Howell, a former fiddle player for the Texas Playboys – had mentioned that the mare was started on barrels. Tracy tried Dolly Jo around the barrels, but wasn’t impressed. She showed the mare a few things about barrel racing and decided to return her to Howell. After a sleepless night going over the decision, she rode Dolly Jo again and was surprised that she had retained the previous day’s lessons. Nowlin made the now fateful decision to keep Dolly Jo as a barrel horse, paying Howell $1,850, and deciding to continue looking for a calf horse for her son.

A professional beader of tack, hatbands and other accouterments, Nowlin usually travels with her mother Beverly Postrach and her son. She’s from a rodeo and roping family and remembers advice from her grandmother after she started Dolly Jo – “You don’t have to sell your dreams; you don’t have to sell her for any amount of money.”

“Dolly is a pretty cool horse and God gave her to me. Horses don’t have to be three or four when you start them. . . they can be 8,” she said.

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