‘A long time coming.’ Women get their due on big stage in rodeo’s break-away roping.

For years and years, women have competed for smaller wages in a rapid-fire rodeo event called break-away roping.

But times — and payouts — are changing dramatically for the cowgirls. For example, The RFD-TV’s The American at AT&T Stadium in Arlington added break-away roping last year. Madison Outhier, 16, wowed fans by clinching the title and walking away with a $100,000 final round winner’s check.

The tradition-rich Cheyenne Frontier Days in Wyoming added break-away roping last year. The Fort Worth Stock Show Rodeo added the same event when its world renowned pro rodeo made the big move into the new Dickies Arena in January.

The World Champions Rodeo Alliance, which conducted a lucrative tour stop last weekend in Kansas City, Missouri, featured break-away roping. The WCRA’s show’s final round was featured on a CBS broadcast on Saturday. Defending world champion Kelsie Chace of Cherokee, Oklahoma, pocketed a $50,000 champion’s check.

One roper extremely pleased about the changes is Jackie Crawford of Stephenville, a 38-year-old mother of two children who has earned 19 world titles (in multiple categories such as break-away roping, team roping, tie-down roping and all-around) on the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association circuit.

“I think it’s been a long time coming and there have been a lot of women throughout our history of our sport that really pushed for this and just never got the door cracked open,” she said. “We have a lot of thanks to give to the WCRA, The American and the big rodeos who started adding us. It’s a great asset to rodeo.”

Fast-paced, family fun

Crawford said break-away roping is an asset because “any time that you add a women’s event that is co-related, kind of doing of the same things as a man’s event,” it’s a big hit with fans.

“The break-away is fast-paced, it’s another women’s event that brings families to rodeo and it’s easy to explain, easy to watch, it’s easy for the fans to get the concept of it,” she said.

In women’s break-away roping, a competitor simply is timed on how fast she can catch the calf from horseback. Like tie-down roping, a competitor backs the horse into a roping box, calls for the chute to be opened and the horse explodes into the arena and tracks the running calf. The roper catches the calf with the loop.

As the horse makes a sudden stop, the rope, which is tied onto the saddle, becomes taut. At that point, the rope breaks away and the stopwatch clicks. A good time is between 2 and 2.5 seconds and a time under two seconds is exceptional.

Crawford finished second at RFD-TV’s the American Semifinals last weekend at Cowtown Coliseum in the Fort Worth Stockyards with a time of 2.02 seconds during a live broadcast of the Cowboy Channel. Outhier, from Utopia in the San Antonio area, clinched the title with a 1.89.

The top finishers at The American Semifinals advanced to the 2020 RFD-TVs The American, which is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday at AT&T Stadium.

The other American Semifinals winners were bareback rider Logan Patterson, 167.25 points on two rides; steer wrestler Rowdy Parrott, 9.24 seconds on two runs; team ropers Nelson Wyatt and Logan Medlin, 8.10 on two runs; barrel racer Randee Pringle, 13.631 on one run; saddle bronc rider Wyatt Casper, 165 on two rides; bull rider Derek Kolbaba, 170 on two rides; and tie-down roper, Shad Mayfield, 16.16 on two runs.

The top finishers from the American Semifinals will be coupled at The American with last year’s top finishers on the PRCA and WPRA circuits such as world all-around champion Stetson Wright, and Haven Meged, the defending world champion tie-down roper who also competes for Tarleton State.

Crawfords on same stage

When Crawford competes in The American in break-away roping, she will be joined by her husband, Charly, 42, who has qualified for the Las Vegas-based NFR nine times (2005-07, 2009-10, 2012-14, 2017) in team roping.

Charly Crawford, who competes in team roping heading, advanced to The American by finishing fifth in team roping at the American Semifinals while partnering with heeler Logan Medlin, a New Mexico cowboy.

“It’s been a lot more fun here lately because her event has been picking up,” Charly Crawford said. “Now that her event has been picking up, we’ve been able to go to some of the events together.”

Charly and Jackie Crawford competed on a big stage at the same time on Feb. 8 at the Fort Worth Stock Show Rodeo’s final round. Jackie Crawford finished second in break-away roping with a 2.4 and earned $15,920 overall. Charly Crawford and Logan Medlin tied for fourth place in team roping title with a 5.6 and each earned $4,760.

For many years, barrel racing has been the lone bigger money event for women at pro rodeos. A typical rodeo such as the National Finals in Las Vegas or RodeoHouston have long featured barrel racing in conjunction with the men’s events such as tie-down roping and bull riding.

But these days, break-away roping is moving into the herd of events at the larger rodeos.

“I feel like the floodgates were let opened,” Jackie Crawford said. “When rodeos [such as Fort Worth and Cheyenne] that are very traditional, when they open it up and have the type of response that they’ve had and they kind of take a leap of faith on us, it’s just gone over so well. I hope more rodeos will see that and keep adding it.”

This story was originally published March 2, 2020 at 6:33 PM.