After Setback Jordon Briggs and Rollo Continue to Mount Comeback Climb

A few months ago, the barrel racing tandem weren’t even competing. Now, they sit inside the WPRA top 20 with a chance to rally for an NFR spot.

Following her win at Cheyenne (Wyo.) Frontier Days in late July, barrel racer Jordon Briggs has vaulted into the top 20 of the WPRA World Standings, giving her a shot at making the NFR for a fifth straight year. / PRCA photo by Click Thompson

No matter where the 2024 rodeo journey ends, Jordon Briggs will always have a three-foot tall, 200-pound reminder from one of its most significant moments. 

Following her win at the Cheyenne (Wyo.) Frontier Days Rodeo in late July, the Tolar, Texas, barrel racer beamed when discussing the hefty statue that was included in the prize package as part of the rodeo’s Year of the Cowgirl celebration. A replica of the female bronc riding bronze sculpture that was unveiled at Frontier Park this summer, the smaller version was given to the winner of every women’s event at this summer’s rodeo – ranch bronc riding, breakaway roping and barrel racing. 

“We’re going to lose a couple miles to the gallon hauling that thing around, but I’ll be proud to look at it every day,” Briggs said with a laugh. 

Congratulation to Jordan Briggs for being our 2024 Cheyenne Frontiers Days Barrel Racing Champ with a time of 17.06 !!

Posted by Cheyenne Frontier Days™ on Sunday, July 28, 2024

It was an unexpected moment of levity and a reason to smile, something both she and her equine teammate, Rollo, desperately needed. 

Back in February, Rollo was diagnosed with a tear in the sesamoid ligament of a hind leg. The ligament is in the fetlock joint on the backside of the horse's foot. Briggs and her veterinarian worked quickly to develop a treatment plan. The result was a process that lasted six weeks before Rollo was completely recovered.

Briggs, however, wasn’t taking any chances. 

“We got him healed up in record time, six weeks, but I took like two more months just to get him in good shape because I knew we’d be making a lot of runs this summer and I wanted to make sure we wouldn’t have any going backwards,” Briggs said. 

It all added up to put the 2021 World Champion in new territory – a zone of uncertainty. 

The injury kept the duo out of the winter rodeo season, including RodeoHouston, an event they won in 2022 and 2023 en route to their third and fourth Wrangler National Finals Rodeo appearances, respectively. 

While they weren’t making runs at rodeos for money during the spring, Briggs and Rollo were hard at work during the extra two months off. She compared their routine to that of a football player taking part in two-a-day workouts, the end goal being to return to action in a condition that would allow them to compete at the highest level instantly. 

As of June 1, the duo had basically no significant earnings for the 2024 season. As of Monday, the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association World Standings showed Briggs as the 38th ranked competitor but none of the earnings from Cheyenne had been factored in yet. 

On Wednesday, the $17,054 from CFD was added to her ledger and Briggs shot up to 20th in the standings with $63,247 secured in just a few months. That puts her about $8,600 back of 15th place in the WPRA standings, which would be the last qualifying spot for the 2024 NFR. 

What comes now is still to be determined. Since CFD, Briggs and Rollo have added about $6,500 in additional prize money to their total, keeping the positive momentum rolling. The rodeo season wraps up in late September, leaving the pair with a small window of time to finish the comeback. There’s a strategy and method to how they’ll approach the final few weeks, one that could result in a fairytale finish at Thomas & Mack Arena in Las Vegas. 

Jordon Briggs has added Cheyenne Frontier Days to her collection of massive rodeo wins! pic.twitter.com/Q1ZBNgyz3g

— The Cowboy Channel (@Cowboy_Channel) July 28, 2024

Briggs likened it to swimming against a rapidly moving current. But after the outcome in Cheyenne, she noted, “Rollo proved that we were made to keep swimming against the current.”

No matter how the last chapter concludes, it’s a heck of a story, one that is still being written. 

“The next step is there’s not a whole lot of rodeos left that pay phenomenal, so I’ve got to keep those tour points going so that I can get into Puyallup (Wash.) and can go to Sioux Falls (S.D.) and that’ll really be my only hope for the NFR,” Briggs said. “It’s God’s plan. We’re just here to show up and see what happens. My main goal is to get in the top 30 so I can go to Houston next year and hopefully start all over again.”