BACKUP LAYS IT DOWN IN DENVER Jimmie Smith Tew rides Nicky to NWSSR Title By Tim Gentry T he 2023 edition of the Denver National Western Stock Show and Rodeo (NWSSR) saw a former runner-up breakthrough to claim the champion’s buckle. Jimmie Smith Tew and
A Valiant Nicky (“Nicky”) laid down a 14.83 second run in the final round, the fastest of the entire event, to improve on her second place finish in 2020. Coming so close that breakout NFR year on Lena on the Rocks (“Lena”) helped make Denver one of her favorite stops on the Pro Tour. And while everybody likes to go where they’ve had success, Smith Tew says there’s way more to it than that. “I love Denver. I think the atmosphere in the back and in the stalls is like no other,” she explained, reverently. “It’s a pretty dark arena and super crowded.” But even with her affinity for the event, she very nearly stayed home this year in McDade, TX. Rather than make the nearly 2,000-mile round trip in the midst of a slump, it was making a lot of sense to stay home and wait for her chance in Ft. Worth. “I wasn’t riding very well and nothing was really going right as far as at home and jackpots and stuff,” said Smith Tew. “So I was like, ‘Well, I just might sit Denver out and wait until Ft. Worth.’ I definitely didn’t plan on running Nicky there so it just happened.’” She hadn’t planned on running Nicky because she never planned on bringing Nicky in the first place.
Jimmie Smith Tew gained tons of confidence on her horse Nicky after the duo rode away with the barrel racing title at the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo in Denver to get their 2023 season off and running. Smith Tew pocketed $4,783 in Denver and moved into the Top 30 as the season gets underway. Photo by Ric Andersen
We won third in our set, fourth in our semi-finals, and I knew that if I ran even a [fifteen]-two again that was not going to win any money in the Finals. So it was just go, have fun and go as fast as we could.” She knew Nicky was fast, and she knew just where they could make up time. Starting strong meant a tighter, cleaner, one-handed turn at the first to help horse and rider stay balanced and collected. Finishing strong meant driving Nicky all the way into the corner for the third barrel, despite coming from an angle almost completely unfamiliar to the rider. “When you go left, you’re not really running into the fence at all,” said Smith-Tew of the Denver pen. “You’re just running into the third barrel. Going to the right, you run straight into the corner. There’s fences on both sides so it just feels tighter. I had never ran to the right before at Denver because I’ve only run my good mare, Lena, and Mini there, and they both go left.” The stage was set in Denver for another amazing final round. Smith Tew was joined again by Pozzi Tonozzi and Lockhart, along with veteran cowgirl Kelly Yates. Running from the middle of the draw, Smith Tew and Nicky delivered what may have been their perfect run for that pen. “The first barrel was absolutely phenomenal,” Smith Tew said. “When I turned the first, I was like, ‘Ohhh, my gosh. Just stay on the horse around the other two barrels.’ I knew that it was fast. It was definitely a feeling. It was just a phenomenal turn.” Altogether, Smith Tew pocketed $4,783 in Denver and jumped into the Top 30 of the WPRA World Standings for this young, 2023 season. At a rodeo she almost didn’t go to on a horse she almost didn’t bring, sometimes our best work comes when we let go of expectations to live, and ride, in the moment.
Lever Action (“Mini”), who seemed like a better fit for Denver’s tight, indoor pen was going to make the trip solo. Thankfully, her mother helped change her mind. “Mom and a friend said, ‘No, you’re not allowed just to take one. You have to have a backup horse,’” she recalled. “So, I ended up taking Nicky with me. After I didn’t have a very good run in the first round I just decided I would give Nicky a chance and see what happened.” Smith Tew’s first round run aboard Mini was a 15.84. Her second round run aboard Nicky was a 15.40. Neither run good enough for a round check, but her run aboard Nicky was just enough to bring her back for the semi-finals of her bracket. Running from near the bottom in the semis, Smith Tew hedged her bets and had both Mini and Nicky saddled, watching the times come in to see if the easier-riding Mini could clock against the field or the speedier but more difficult to ride Nicky would get the nod. “It was way fast. There were two 14s and a 15.0,” she said of her bracket’s semi-finals, which featured 16-time NFR qualifiers Brittany Pozzi Tonozzi and Lisa Lockhart. “I ended up deciding that I was going to run Nicky and it worked out again. I squeaked into the finals. So for sure I was running Nicky in the finals.” The pair’s 15.28-second run was good for the last slot out of bracket two’s semis, and showed good improvement run-over-run. With what she called “quiet aggression” in the semis, she rode two-handed to give Nicky that extra level of guidance, especially into the all-important first barrel. She said the honesty she got back from Nicky felt amazing, but there was still work to be done. “Neither of my runs on Nicky were very good,” she confessed, at least according to the clock. “We were just squeaking by, obviously.
82 WPRA NEWS MARCH 2023
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