After Putting Family First, Summer Kosel Shines in Return to Action

The barrel racer focused on her kids during the winter and spring, but wasted no time piling up the earnings to start the summer run.

After making the NFR for the first time in 2023, barrel racer Summer Kosel has approached this season with a focus on family first. But recent success has her thinking about a potential push to return to Las Vegas. / Click Thompsonn/For PRCA

On July 4, Summer Kosel left the Livingston (Mont.) Roundup Rodeo with more than $9,000 in earnings to her credit. 

On July 5, she was drenched in sweat and debris from a morning of mowing and weed eating around her home in Glenham, S.D. 

For some rodeo competitors, one performance leads to the next town and the next event. It’s a cycle of mount up, check the scoreboard and hit the road again. 

Kosel participated in that routine last year. It resulted in her first Wrangler National Finals Rodeo appearance at 37-years old. But getting to Las Vegas has never been her priority, even when it was her focus. 

“After I made the NFR last year, I said, ‘We proved our point.’ We went out and tried it once and we made it once and not very many people can say that,” Kosell said. “When I started that whole journey last year, I told myself I was not going to make rodeo an idol. I was not going to obsess over it. I was going to stick to a game plan. I was not going to run my horse at 100 rodeos. I was very firm in not making rodeo an idol and keeping God and faith and family at the forefront of everything. After we made the NFR, I kind of got back home and dialed everything back in.”

From the outset, Kosel’s plan for this season has been simple: Because of her success in 2023, she and her horse, Apollo, would compete at the prestigious winter rodeos she had qualified for. After that, there would be trips to nearby circuit events throughout the winter and spring, but for the most part rodeo was going to be on the back burner as there were bigger matters to tend to.

Her oldest daughter, Hope, was a senior in high school, leading to a lot of important milestone moments Kosel didn’t want to miss. Additionally, her other kids had their own events and needs, all of which the mother of four wanted to be supportive of. 

During her run to NFR last year, Kosel attended 59 rodeos in all, the seventh fewest of the 15 barrel racers who qualified for the season-culminating event. Six of her fellow competitors went to 75 or more, while the four riders who finished shy of qualifying went to 90-plus events each. 

Summer Kosel and her horse, Apollo, won more than $19,000 over the last two weeks, putting them in position to make a potential hard push this summer qualifier for a second straight NFR> / Roseanna Sales/For PRCA

While Kosel didn’t make as many stops, her journey piled up the mileage as she made the effort to be both a professional cowgirl and an involved mother. It’s a lesson she carried into 2024. 

“I promised them that we’re not going to get everybody strung out again and mom trying to run back and forth from everywhere,” Kosel said. “Poor Apollo did get bounced probably more miles than a lot of horses, even the ones who went to 90 or 100 rodeos, because I was bouncing back and forth to home, trying to take care of my priorities here.” 

True to her word, Kosel ran at places like Fort Worth, San Antonio, Houston and Austin in the winter. Beyond that, the competition was sporadic. Along the way, she helped her daughter navigate the final months of high school and figuring out a college. Hope will be competing next school year on the inaugural Bismarck State College women’s rodeo team.

Kosel’s motherly focus remains unchanged. Her family is still her priority. But with some of the major life events squared away for now, rodeoing at a high level is back in the conversation, which was part of the plan all along. 

“We just kind of decided we were going to wait and see how the Fourth of July went and then Calgary and then Cheyenne,” Kosel said. “And if those all went well, then I was going to go out on the road and maybe try to make the NFR or if nothing else stay in the top 20 so I can get into the big rodeos again next year to give it a go again.”

The Cowboy Christmas run served as less of a comeback and more of a restart. 

The win in Livingston in a time of 16.97 seconds was the high point, but not the only significant outcome for Kosel and Apollo. The pair finished as runners-up at Mandan (N.D.) Rodeo Days and third at the Home of Champions Rodeo in Red Lodge, Mont.

They also earned money at three other rodeos dating back to June 27. Combined, the two-week stretch brought in more than $19,000 in earnings. As of the July 2 update to Women’s Professional Rodeo Association World Barrel Racing Standings, she’s ranked 44th but much of the most recent earnings haven’t been factored in.

Whether it’s a second straight NFR or some Badlands Circuit rodeos, Kosel is fine with whatever comes next. She’s going to do what’s best for herself, her family and her horse. 

But Livingston was certainly a reminder of how much potential Kosel and her 10-year-old equine partner have to shake up the WPRA standings– if they choose to.

“He was feeling good from the time the rodeo started. He was bucking at the trailer and feeling full of himself, feeling good. I looked at my husband and I said, ‘Oh, he’s ready. He’s really ready,’’ Kosel said with a laugh. “I just was very confident from the time I saddled him to when the rodeo started. I thought, ‘God, if this is your will, I think we’re both ready.’”