story by Lily Weinacht
“Rodeo is all I really know, and I feel I owe it to myself to devote what time I can to it. I told myself I’d go somewhere with it,” says Dillon Jensen. Rodeo has taken the 25 year old from Queen Creek, Arizona, to both ends of the arena, and most recently, he’s donned the bullfighter’s baggies. “I started fighting bulls in high school for a local place called Rawhide. I didn’t really know anything about it, I just jumped out there and fell in love with it!” Dillon recalls. “I fought a little bit in college and worked my way up the rope since then. Since I came back from college in 2012, Lance White has really helped me with the ins and outs, and I’m working on getting my professional card right now.”
He’s also working to fill his PRCA permit as a competitor in the saddle bronc riding and steer wrestling. Dillon has competed in the GCPRA since 2008, qualifying for the GCPRA finals six times – three times in the saddle bronc riding and three times in the steer wrestling, qualifying in both his events in 2010. “I started out with them in high school since pretty much everybody I rodeoed with in high school did the GCPRA too. Now that I’m older, all my friends still compete in it, and their rodeos and their stock are great every time. Two broncs I like a lot are Shadow, owned by Milo DeWitt, and One Dot, owned by Scott McDaniel. Shadow is a bit more rank, and One Dot is really fluent with her movements. They both buck so nice, it feels easy.”
Dillon started his rodeo career roping, competing in the AJRA. His dad, Justin, competed in junior rodeos growing up and his mom, April, was a 4-H member and represented their state as Miss Rodeo Arizona in 1989. Dillon started riding roughstock his junior year of high school, and competed in both steer wrestling and saddle bronc riding through college at Oklahoma Panhandle State University, Southwest Texas Junior College, and Tarleton State University. He’s been training a new horse this year for steer wrestling, a five-year-old mare named Cowgirl. “Cowgirl came from Lance Robbins, and Mom trained her to run barrels, but she didn’t seem to like them, so we gave her something else to do. I think she’s very promising!”
While Dillon graduated with a bachelor’s in Wildlife Management and an associate’s in Wildlife Biology, he currently runs a welding business with his dad, along with a custom leatherwork business. “My third year of college, I started working on the pipelines in Texas and I really liked it. My dad’s owned a welding shop since I was little, and in my shop we build trailers, and do trailer repair, metal fabrication, and structural welding.” Dillon’s grandpa taught him several leatherwork techniques, but he is primarily self-taught. “I work mainly on custom belts, and I have a friend that braids mule tape halters. I build the nosebands for those, and he takes them to Las Vegas every year. I recently finished a big project for a youth organization here, CVSC, building spur straps and rope cans.”
On weekends, Dillon and his girlfriend, Kristen Summerfield – also a GCPRA competitor – haul to rodeos. “We met when we were junior rodeoing – we were about ten,” says Dillon. “We’re also very big into hunting in the fall, and I spend as much time as I can with my sister, Chantel, and her daughter, Avery.”
One of Dillon’s main goals is building on his bullfighting career, with hopes of fighting bulls in GCPRA rodeos. “I’ve been following the progress of Bullfighters Only, and I’ve talked with Logan Blasdell and Chuck Swisher. They’re inspirational, and watching their techniques helps a lot. I’d also like to win the year-end for the GCPRA in saddle bronc riding, and I’m really pushing for that next year. I thank God for all this to be possible.”
