Meet Our Gold Buckle Barrel Pros

My name is Jimmie Smith and I have grown up in the equine industry. While growing up we went to all of the youth rodeo which then turned into jr high, and high school rodeos later on.

I attended Texas A&M University receiving my bachelors in agricultural communications and journalism. I qualified for the College National Finals in all three of my events barrels, breakaway, and goat tying.

After graduating in May of 2018 I decided to rodeo for the summer, this was my rookie year. I went on to win the Puyallup Washington Tour Finale and Resistol Rookie of the year finishing top 25 in the world.

I continued to rodeo and battled some horse injuries that kept us from the NFR in 2019, but we made a strong come back and clinched our first NFR in 2020, winning round two and banking over 100,000 in Arlington.

In 2021 we endured more unfortunate circumstances that kept us two spots out of the NFR. Along our journey in 2021 we met some amazing people and have found some amazing horses.

I look forward to continuing my rodeo career, while helping the equine industry sell their equine athletes at ease and at a touch of their fingertips!

Jennifer and her husband Robbie train barrel horses in South Texas and she entered Denver planning to ride her 8-year-old Dash Ta Fame stallion Kr Famous Tequilla. When Smooch did well at Odessa, Jennifer opted to ride her in Denver and that decision proved to be a good one.

In the world championship standings, she had dropped to 5th in April, then to 7th in June. She won more than $30,000 in June and early July, moving back up to 5th. She placed second in her pool at the Calgary Stampede, but knocked over a barrel in the finals there.

While this is Jennifer’s first trip to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, she has plenty of barrel racing experience. She has excelled in the futurity world and is a former American Quarter Horse Association barrel racing champion. She also qualified for her first Canadian Finals Rodeo this year spending much of the summer north of the border.

“I’m from South Texas, so I nearly froze in June (in Canada),” she said, adding that Tequilla liked the arenas in Canada and placed at nearly every rodeo they entered while there.

Jennifer started barrel racing at age 8, even though her family did not own horses. A friend who lived down the road was a barrel racer and introduced Jennifer to play days. She won her first saddle at age 9 and continued barrel racing. She qualified for the National High School Finals Rodeo in pole bending three times and won two state championships in that event.

Every horse she rode while growing up was one she had trained herself and Jennifer grateful for that experience now, crediting it with helping her become the rider she is today.

Raising and training some of the world’s best barrel horses proved to be a short learning curve for the Utah native who, because she grew up in a non-rodeo family in the city, learned to train her own horses from the age of 11.

In fact, Campbell’s first project, a mare named Pants On Fire, became the fourth-ranked futurity colt in the country in 1994. With those earnings, Campbell bought 6-year-old Howlinatthemoon, and had the 1995 NFR made by the time she turned 18.

She made it back to the NFR in 2002, but was always hooked more on the challenge of training.

In fact, over the past 14 years, Campbell has bridged the gap between training colts and winning rodeos like few barrel racers have.

“I do believe a person can do both,” says the trainer. “You pick your spots and go to the arenas that suit your horse-otherwise you’re wasting your horse and your rodeos.”

But she plays no favorites. Campbell is bad to go home to ride colts in July when she’s near the top 20 in the world, or turn out of rodeos like Fort Worth to go to futurities. But this season, Repete and Barney are making the decision for her.

Campbell’s knack for making winners out of horses with physical and emotional problems is part of her success. She’s unlike many trainers in that she doesn’t constantly demand excellence from her horses.