We were always on that line where it could go either way. “She came back pretty strong, not as strong as I needed. There’s still a lot left,’” Lockhart said. “I thought, ‘Well, I need to at least give her the opportunity to see how she comes back. Once Rosa was cleared to compete again, Lockhart made a choice. That momentum came to a halt when Rosa suffered an injury two days before they were scheduled to run at Cheyenne Frontier Days in late July.Īn injury that was predicted to take two weeks to heal turned into a month, causing Lockhart to fall further behind. The duo came up with some strong runs, earning enough checks to put them just outside the top 20 in the standings. Getting to this moment was anything but easy.Īfter less-than-stellar showings in the winter rodeos, Lockhart headed to California with her buckskin mare, Rosa, looking to get back in contention. Her 16th consecutive trip to pro rodeo’s culminating event keeps Lockhart in the running to one day possibly eclipse Charmayne James’ record of 19 straight qualifications.

The combination of a competitive spirit and some late-season magic has Lockhart back in a familiar spot - among the 15 barrel racers who are running at the NFR this week. “It was almost a panic button, like ‘What if?’ And we all know that all good things come to an end, but I was still within shooting distance, and I was not ready for it to come to an end.” I say that lightly, but I also say that very seriously. It was just hard to imagine life without going to NFR at this point. “It was just that thought that if it was mathematically possible, I wanted to give it my all. That kind of speaks volumes,” Lockhart said with a laugh. “As my husband said, there was only one time I was in the top 15 of the standings all year, and it was in the last week of the rodeo season. Until taking into account some pesky math, of course. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal) were days when Lisa Lockhart just wanted to load up her trailer and go back to South Dakota.įor the past 15 years, Lockhart has been a mainstay in barrel racing at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, with two NFR average titles to her credit and around $1.3 million in earnings at the Thomas &Mack Center.īut this year, reaching a 16th straight Wrangler NFR seemed impossible. Lisa Lockhart of Oelrichs, SD., navigates the second obstacle during Barrel Racing in the National Finals Rodeo Day 2 at the Thomas & Mack Center on Friday, Dec.

Professional barrel racers names