Blink, and You’ll Miss Her: Lowman Leads the World after Back-to-Back Wins at Major Texas Swing Rodeos

From team roper to 'Texas Swing Queen,' with arena records in between, Danielle Lowman blazes a trail. Her wild card round comeback and finals championship at the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo mark her triumph. But the Gilbert, Ariz. native's journey wasn't always smooth.

Kenneth Springer

Growing up on the Navajo reservation, there wasn’t much for Danielle Lowman to do other than ride a horse. Despite her father’s best efforts, Lowman had no interest in picking up a breakaway rope, and by the time she reached the high school level, she had fallen in love with team roping and had no intention of switching events. 

After the loss of her father during her senior year of high school, Lowman decided to take a step away from the rodeo scene, and it wasn’t until her grandparents stepped in to help her heal from the tremendous loss that she decided to get back into it. She went to college on a rodeo scholarship, and although she intended to stick to team roping, she finally decided to give the breakaway a chance to honor her father's wishes. 

After years of mounting out and turning heel horses into breakaway horses, Lowman’s grandparents purchased her first ‘real’ breakaway horse in 2016 from the Mayfields. She then began to hit the amateur and Indian rodeo trail to keep building her confidence in the breakaway. 

By 2019, the breakaway had started to make its way into the professional rodeo scene, and after Lowman’s All-Around win at the Bob Feist Invitational in Reno, Nev., she finally felt like she was ready to rodeo at the professional level. Sitting in the nosebleed section at the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo and watching her friend compete, Lowman decided that she was going to do whatever it took to get herself on the arena floor. Little did she know just five short years later, she would break the arena record at that same rodeo. 

If you look at Lowman’s end to 2023 and her 2024 season thus far, you would think that winning just comes naturally and easily to her, but Lowman has a unique mindset and awareness of her struggles leading up to these moments that set her apart from her fellow competitors. 

“I’ve lost a lot, and I’ve learned how to be a loser. You’ve got to learn how to lose in order to be a winner.”

Lowman’s first NFR in 2021 didn’t quite go in her favor, and the 2022 season found her in the No. 16 spot in the world standings, just narrowly missing the National Finals Breakaway Roping (NFBR). The loss of her great horse, Lil Moe, in 2023, whom she credits for changing her life in more ways than one, could have disrupted her career, but her 8-year-old mare Shi’Biz stepped up hugely and has become a crucial part of her success. 

Lowman first started to set the world on fire with three back-to-back go-round wins at the 2023 NFBR, with runs of 1.9 seconds or faster. She used that momentum and confidence to propel her into the new year, where she continued to rope fast and cash in big checks. 

The ‘Texas Swing’ started with the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo, where Lowman not only set a new arena record of a 1.6 in the breakaway but also took home the championship on finals night. Three of Lowman’s four runs in Dickies Arena were under the two-second mark. 

Shortly after Fort Worth concluded, the next of the Texas Swing rodeos began in San Antonio. Lowman put on yet another show when she tied the arena record with a 1.6 in the second round of her bracket. Her earnings were just enough to advance, and after a tough go in the semi-finals, she had one more shot to get the job done in the wildcard round. 

Laying it all out on the line, Lowman knew she had to nail the start and take the quickest shot she had. Yet another 1.6-second run was good enough to win the round and advance her to the finals. 

Before her final run in San Antonio, she decided to head up to the arena early and watch the team roping as she usually did. She watched Derrick Begay and Colter Todd (who also won the Wild Card round) as the last team out to win the final round at San Antonio. 

Lowman says watching one of her heroes win the rodeo from the same place she was in gave her the confidence to go out and do the same thing. Her lucky number of 1.6 came in clutch one more time for the championship at San Antonio. 

Some are calling Lowman the 'Texas Swing Queen' and are hoping for a triple crown effect if she can capture the win at Houston, Austin, or San Angelo. This kind of pressure can be a heavy weight to carry, but for someone as mentally sound as Lowman, these three are just another rodeo for her. 

“We all have our year, and that’s just the way I look at it. I am excited and blessed to be having the year that I am having, but the way it’s supposed to end is totally up to God, and I am just going to live with it however He has planned.”

Lowman strives to use her platform and spotlight to encourage everyone at home to believe that you can be exactly where she is one day, just as her fellow competitors and heroes did for her. She credits her mental toughness, the people she surrounds herself with, and the hard work she puts in for where she is today. 

The sport of breakaway in professional rodeo has made leaps and bounds from where it was 5-10 years ago. There is an abundance of opportunities available to ropers that weren’t previously available, and Lowman noted the importance of advocating for the sport and growing it as much as possible. 

Likewise, for her fellow contestants, the main goal is to see the sport continue to grow as it has in years past and ultimately #AddBreakaway to the Thomas and Mack with the rest of the NFR. 

To summarize it all, two NFBR qualifications, three go-round wins at the 2023 NFBR, two arena records, and two championships in a row at major rodeos are now under Lowman’s belt. She leads the world standings by an incredible $23,000 going into her set at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Lowman is nearly halfway to six figures in earnings with seven months in the season left to go and has her sights set on a World Championship in 2024.