Back On The Rodeo Road: Husband, son, fellow barrel racer spur cowgirl to return to professional rodeo competition
It’s been a long time coming, but Jessica Wieser is ready to rodeo again.
And the Walcott, N.D. cowgirl will compete at the N.D. Winter Show in Valley City March 11.
After the sudden death of her barrel racing horse in 2010, she quit barrel racing professionally, till this year, at the urging of her husband Brien, son Hayden and good friend Abby Sigvaldsen, also a professional cowgirl.
Wieser got her Women’s Pro Rodeo Association membership in 2009, and she knew she had a winner in her horse named Bo. Bo had been her mount through her high school and college days. They had a special bond. “He taught me a lot,” she said.
Then, while riding him in the practice arena, he suffered an aneurysm and died. “I watched him take his last breath,” she said. “It was one of my hardest moments. I lost a piece of me that day.”
After working through the grief, she went back to rodeo, but not at the pro level. She didn’t have any horses that she considered ready to make professional runs.
She and her husband, a former bareback rider, competed in the North Dakota Rodeo Association events, and the couple had a son.
But nine years ago, a horse was born that changed Jessica’s life.
She and Brien had purchased a brood mare, bred to a son of the famous performance horse Frenchmans Guy. The brood mare had a colt, whose Jessica named Oscar.
Oscar is pro-rodeo material, with the potential to put Jessica back on the pro rodeo trail.
Her husband knew it, as did her good friend and fellow barrel racer Sigvaldsen. Sigvaldsen “has pushed me” to get back to pro rodeo competition, “and my husband said, ‘do it, do