This Colorado cowgirl balances her life on the ranch with her rodeo dreams.
Jessica Mosher was raised and continues to live and work on her family’s cow-calf operation in eastern Colorado, near the place her great-great-grandfather homesteaded in 1904. The youngest of four children, the 25-year-old grew up competing in youth rodeo and watching her brothers — Chad, Matt and Wade — ride broncs. She rode her first bronc last May at the first Working Ranch Cowboys Association Championship Bronc Riding in Amarillo, Texas, and won the women’s division. Though she has no plans of regularly competing in ranch bronc riding, she has found her niche as a rodeo pick-up woman.
My brothers were really protective of me and taught me a lot about horses. I looked up to them and aspired to be just as handy as them.
Sometimes, they got me into trouble. When I was little, I had a gentle steer that I could sit on at the feed rack, and I wanted to ride him. My brothers convinced me to tie a piece of cake on the end of a string attached to a stick, and hold the stick in front of the steer so he’d walk after it. He took three steps and bucked me off. They made me promise I wouldn’t tell Mom or Dad.
I considered going to college, but I didn’t have a major I wanted to study. I probably would’ve just went to rodeo, and I didn’t figure I needed to go just for that.
Every day I worked with my dad. We get up in the morning and decide together what needs to be done. In the summer, I’m gone rodeoing most of the time.
I do whatever needs to be done around here, from welding and driving a tractor to unloading hay, doctoring cattle and riding horses. But I don’t like to climb on windmills, so I save that for Wade.
I started rodeoing when I was 8 years old. It’s just what you did in my family. Today, I compete in breakaway and tie-down roping in the Colorado Professional Rodeo Association and Women’s Professional Rodeo Association.
Ever since I was a little girl watching my brothers ride bucking horses, I thought the pick-up men were so handy. I wanted to see how I’d do at picking up.
“Picking up diversifies my ranch horses and makes them tough.”
I began picking up in 2008. Some local ranch kids wanted to get on practice horses, so we gathered some of our horses and bucked out four or five of them every week. I started out pushing the horses and, as the weeks passes, [pick-up man] Todd McCoy started showing me how to pick up. The next year, I was hired to pick up at my first rodeo in Collbran, Colorado, with him.
While visiting a friend at Oklahoma Panhandle State University in Goodwell, we were watching some horses get bucked out. My friend told Robert and Dan Etbauer, who were in charge of the rodeo program, that I could pick up and convinced them to let me help. I was so nervous. I’m sure I made a million mistakes, but it was so much fun, and they gave me tips.
I’ve never encountered any resistance to being a pick-up woman, but I think some of the competitors are like, “Whoa, that was a girl?” I’ve dropped a few bareback riders, but I haven’t killed anyone yet.
Being well-mounted is important to picking up. There are some handy guys who can pick up on about anything. But if you have a horse that is broke and has speed, it helps a bunch.
I’ve done some stupid things that should’ve got me into wrecks, but, knock on wood, I haven’t gotten hurt. I did have a bronc hit my horse and bail over the top of us, and my horse fell over on me. It wasn’t a big deal, though, because I got away.
I was honored to be voted in by the cowboys to pick up at the CPRA Finals in 2010 and 2012. It’s a tight-knit group and they know me, but I don’t think they would’ve voted me in if I didn’t do a good job.
Ranching will always stay with me, but rodeo is the priority right now. I’d like to train a barrel horse and qualify for the National Finals Rodeo, and I’d like to win some world roping titles. My ultimate dream is to be the first female to pick up at the NFR. It will take hard work and dedication, but I think it’s possible. If you do your job and people like it, I don’t think it matters if you’re a girl or a guy.
My dad, Matt and Wade were there to help me get on my bronc in Amarillo, and they were more nervous than I was. I thought I’d be nervous, but when I nodded my head a calm came over me. Matt told me that once the horse took three or four jumps, it would feel easier than I thought, and he wasn’t kidding. I just reacted to the horse like I would a colt.
I hope to keep this ranch going in the future. My family put it together, and I don’t want to see it split up and the land sold to developers. This is our livelihood, and if we can’t do this we will have to get jobs in town. I don’t know what I would do other than train horses.
This article was originally published in the May 2013 issue of Western Horseman.
