5 Star Champion Archives - The Rodeo News

5 Star Champion

Featured Athlete: Jimmie Smith

Jimmie Smith is the 2019 Texas Circuit champion barrel racer and the 2018 WPRA Resistol Rookie of the Year. The McDade, Texas cowgirl won all her Texas money on a special horse, a ten-year-old mare, LenaOnTheRocks, “Lena.” The mare, a palomino, loves the winter rodeos, and she and her rider…

Featured Athlete: Hope Thompson

Hope Thompson is one of the lucky women in rodeo who can make her living with horses. The Abilene, Texas cowgirl, a breakaway roper and team roper, trains horses and gives clinics on roping. She was born and raised in Atlanta, Texas and attended McNeese State in Lake Charles, La.,…

Featured Athlete: Jennifer Sharp

ennifer Sharp competed at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo last month. It was the first qualification for the 5 Star Equine team member, who lives in Richards, Texas. She and her husband Robbie own and operate Sharp Performance Horses, riding colts for the public and training barrel and performance horses.…

Dona Kay Rule

Dona Kay Rule is a 5 Star Equine Products Team member, and she’s headed to her first Wrangler National Finals Rodeo this month. One of best friends, High Valor “Valor” is going along. Actually, he’s the reason she’s headed to Vegas. Valor, a ten-year-old sorrel gelding, out of Rare High…

Featured Athlete: Hazlee McKenzie

Hazlee McKenzie had a unique babysitter when she was a little girl. When her parents would go to a roping, they’d put her in a pen, on her pony Trigger. She’d ride Trigger for hours, and they didn’t have to worry about her. That’s how she fell in love with…

Featured Athlete: Nollie Launius

Every day, Nollie Launius makes strides toward his dream of becoming a professional roper. The 10-year-old cowboy from Nashville, Arkansas, is already a dual-event champion in the Southern Junior Rodeo Association, competing in team roping, breakaway roping, and goat tying. He’s traveling the rodeo trail with a prosthetic leg, born…

Reaching For The Stars: Lexee Jo Barvian

Lexee Jo Barvian started riding horses before she could stand on her own two feet, but these days the 18-year-old from Attica, New York, does both as a professional trick rider. While the graceful drama of a death drag is one of Lexee Jo’s favorites, the liberty stand is where…

Lari Dee Guy

“I just feel that roping has come so far since I was a kid. I feel that people have gotten so many opportunities with videos and schools and tools like the Heel-O-Matic, and horsemanship has come so far. We as older competitors have even evolved. I learn as much from…

Jackie Ganter

Professional barrel racer Jackie Ganter took the road less traveled when it came to her rodeo goals this season. It ultimately led her to a new horse, who is poised to put Jackie firmly in the competition for the 2019 season. The 22-year-old from Abilene, Texas, started out her 2018…

Jessica Routier

Jessica Routier’s goal at the beginning of the season was to finish in the top 30 of the WPRA world standings to set herself and her 7-year-old mare up for a bigger season next year. But when the barrel racer from Buffalo, South Dakota, and her horse, Fiery Miss West…

Tami Semas

Tami Semas—professional barrel racer, saddle designer, and wife and mother of two—found her niche in the horse industry in high school, and dug deep into her passion after college. The first of her family to rodeo growing up, the 41-year-old from Brock, Texas, learned by trial and error, and her…

Cole Edge

Cole Edge of Durant, Oklahoma, is sitting second in the PRCA standings in steer wrestling, an event he originally took up in high school for the all-around points. The 33-year-old cowboy comes from a family of ropers and focused primarily on team roping and tie-down roping through high school, but…