NEED FOR SPEED DeMers Finds Her Speed in Barrel Racing By Joe Kusek W hen Nicole DeMers was in high school, she decided she wanted to pick up the pace in the arena.
Then Nicole Krist of Moab, Utah, she grew up riding show horses. But she had an underlying need for speed. “I like to go fast,” said DeMers. “I like competing against a timer.”
Her parents agreed to sell her show horse and buy a barrel horse. The horse, Scooter, would carry the then teenager to the Utah High School Finals Rodeo in five events: barrel racing, pole bending, team roping, breakaway roping and goat tying. “He was a nice horse,” she said. Since that time more than a decade ago, DeMers has shifted gears a few times – marriage, motherhood and a couple of moves --- took priority. But she’s starting to put the metal to the pedal again in the WPRA. A rookie in 2015, the mother of two has competed in the both the Wilderness and Turquoise Circuits. DeMers finished third in the final 2018 Turquoise Circuit standings and won the first round of the finals for that year. She is in the top 12 of the early 2020 Turquoise Circuit standings. At the La Fiesta De Los Vaqueros rodeo in Tucson, Ariz., Feb. 15-23, DeMers and her horse Voodoo Lane, qualified for the final round and finished eighth in the average against a star-studded field. “It was nice to see her do pretty well with the big girls,” said DeMers of her partner. DeMers bought the bay mare (out of Proudest Effort and sired by Famous Lane) as a two-year-old. “I had some other horses and she worked her way to the front,” said DeMers of her competitive barrel racing horse. “She’s got a ton of speed and loves her job.” DeMers and her family live north of Scottsdale, Arizona, where husband Cody manages the MorDo Ranch, a facility that trains cutting horses. The two, along with daughter nine-year-old daughter Hailee and three-year-old son Wesley, live on the grounds. “It’s a perfect opportunity for our family,” said DeMers, whose family has six horses.
Nicole DeMers has her eyes set on another circuit finals qualification and after qualifying for the finals aboard her main mount Voodoo Lane in Tucson, Arizona, she is on the right path for 2020. Photo by Dan Hubbell
Cody DeMers, originally from Boulder, Montana is a four-time Wrangler National Finals Rodeo qualifier in bareback riding. Nicole DeMers had to go a long way to meet her future husband. While attending Mesa State (now Colorado Mesa) in Grand Junction, Colorado, a friend suggested she had a guy that Nicole should meet at the popular boxing smoker hosted by College of Southern Idaho. CSI is located in Twin Falls, Idaho, a 500-mile drive from Grand Junction. “It was a long way,” said Nicole DeMers with a laugh of the collegiate road trip. The two exchanged numbers and began dating in 2002. The two grabbed time together when Cody passed through on his way to another rodeo. While dating, DeMers moved back to Utah and then to Idaho where she worked with barrel racing horse trainer Shirley Ankrum. The work with Ankrum proved pivotal in her rodeo career. “She’s a mentor,” said DeMers. “Shirley has been instrumental in my barrel racing. She’s just a super-great horsewoman. She is very precise … just big on the precision of the event. And she taught me how a horse should feel.” Nicole and Cody DeMers married in 2006. The pair settled in Twin Falls where Cody was an assistant coach with the legendary CSI rodeo program and Nicole went to work with an insurance agency. She eventually took a job as a secretary with the rodeo team after their daughter was born so the family could have more time together.
26 WPRA NEWS APRIL 2020
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