story by Lily Weinacht
Jordan Jackson was just one spot out of qualifying for the Junior NFR last year in the KKP, but the barrel racer from Montgomery, Texas, qualified this year when she rose to the top in April and won the senior race at the KK Run for Vegas in Marshall, Texas. At 12, she was one of the youngest competitors in the senior division that weekend, and Jordan racked up a series of firsts: first KKP race she’s entered on her new horse, KN Hanky Panky, leading to the first race the pair has won together. “I call him Hank. We’ve had him about six months, and we just recently clicked. I’ve been trying to work really hard with him,” says Jordan. “I was kind of surprised at first that I won. When I went into my run and turned the first barrel, I thought, ‘Ok, this will be good,’ and then I came out and realized I was winning it.”
Barrels are Jordan’s first love in rodeo, but she also competes in pole bending in the TJHRA. She won the youth pole bending class at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo last year, which qualified her for the AQHA World Show, where she finished third in the pole bending. “I really love doing rodeo, so after every run, if it’s good, you want to repeat it every time. If it doesn’t go well, I practice to make sure I don’t do it again, and I get to see the benefits of all the work I put into it.”
Jordan is the first in her family to enter the horse world, starting with riding lessons at Banshee Ranch when she was 4 on a Welsh pony her parents, Paige and Ron Jackson, leased. She took lessons from Della Porter-Redd and later started working with Jennifer Sharp, who is an AQHA World Champion. While Jordan started off riding English and entering hunter hack classes, she found her niche in barrel racing and other speed events several years later. Her pole horse, Dashing Tipper, is the first horse she owned, and the pair rode on an equestrian drill team and entered local playdays. Originally, Tipper was Jordan’s barrel horse as well, but the family purchased Hank while Tipper was recovering from an injury last year. “He’s 100 percent recovered now and I’ll probably keep him doing poles. He’s 16 hands and he’s really big, but he’s really good at it,” says Jordan. “When I first got Hank, we went left to the barrel. He was trained to the right, but his first owner didn’t like the way he came up on the right. Going left, I couldn’t keep him from hitting it, so I changed to the right and now we’ve only hit maybe four times.”
School also keeps Jordan on her toes as she’s finishing sixth grade at Montgomery Junior High. She enjoys math, particularly since after studying the Pi formula, she and her classmates all brought pies to class to eat together. Jordan is also a member of 4-H—her buttermilk pecan pie won a blue ribbon at the Montgomery County Fair in April—and the National Junior Honor Society, while she plays the French horn in band. A former swim team member, she’s planning to do athletics next year, such as volleyball and track, and will be doing an early release program next that will allow her to ride during Off-Campus PE.
“I’m working on going right with Hank and being consistent about not hitting, and I want to return to (AQHA) Worlds next year with both my horses in poles and barrels,” she finishes. “I want to do good in Vegas this year, and eventually, I want to turn pro.”
