When Fiery Miss West and Jessica Routier won the NFR Open in 2023, the ground was knee deep mud. 

And when they won it again July 13, 2024? Dry, high-desert dust in the Norris-Penrose Event Center—a testament to the 2011 mare’s keen ability to adapt and remain one of ProRodeo’s most consistent mounts. 

“She’s just one in a million,” Routier, 41, of Buffalo, South Dakota, said. “She loves this arena, and I don’t know what it is about it, but we won this rodeo one other time too before it was the NFR Open.”

The mare ran a 17.02 to win second and $2,250 in the first round of their pool Thursday night, speeding up to a 16.98 in Round 2 Friday afternoon, worth another $1,500. 

“I was really just wanting to keep the barrels up in those first two rounds,” Routier said. “And then I did not do that tonight because I wanted to let her be a little bit shorter and get closer to the barrels and seem to work.”

Routier and Missy came back ready to speed things up in the final, clean-slate round of nine Saturday night. 

“I had a lot of confidence in her tonight because the first two rounds she clocked good, but we didn’t get real close to the barrels the first two rounds,” Routier said. “So I knew we could be faster. And so, I mean, the way it was a sudden death situation, we just went for it.”

Near the bottom of the ground, Routier smoked a 16.59, the fastest run of the rodeo, to pick up the $13,000 first-place check. The added speed came from Routier’s game plan to get her horse a tick tighter. 

“And I was really just wanting to keep the barrels up in those first two rounds,” Routier explained. “And then I did not do that tonight because I wanted to let her be a little bit shorter and get closer to the barrels, and it seemed to work.”

So how did Routier change her seasoned horse’s tracks around the barrels after two runs in the same arena? She eliminated Missy’s signature four-barrel warm-up drill that she uses to keep the mare round and free from her pre-run routine before the short round.

“My horses are ranch horses and I ride them outside, and I don’t work them on the barrels a lot,” Routier elaborated on the drill she did warming up for her first two runs. “But from the day I start my colts, I start them on a four-barrel drill. They’re just four barrels in a square and I’ll do all right hand turns in the square and then I’ll do all left hand turns in a square and I like it because they have to go all the way around the barrel not just two thirds of the way around if you had a triangular pattern set up and so it just really keeps them really shapey and free and just kind of driving the whole way around the shape of that barrel, and it seems to fix every problem I’ve ever needed it to fix… I don’t want her laying on me either, you know, I want her really soft and, um, working off my hand and my inside leg and just really, I like my horses to have a lot of shape in their body and in their turns and so it really gives them that shape and keeps them soft.”

Routier’s long-standing understanding of her horse’s inner workings have helped her qualify for five straight Wrangler National Finals Rodeos on Missy, making her one of ProRodeo’s most rock-solid duos.

“She doesn’t get a lot of special treatment,” Routier admitted. “She doesn’t require a lot of maintenance. I just really try to keep her happy, and I think the things that keep her happy are different than what would keep other horses happy. Tonight it looked like it was going to storm, so I tried to put her in a stall in the barn here. And she about had a meltdown, and so she went back out in her pen beside my trailer and that’s where she’s happy. When we’re hauling, I try to get her out to graze or turn her out in an arena, just to let her be free. I put sawdust down so she can lay down at night, and that’s really about all it takes to keep her happy.”

Routier will enter the same rodeos she’s entered the last six years with Missy, picking the pens with the deep ground Missy loves most. That means when many of the top 15 are duking it out up north, she’ll head to the Prairie Circuit to the Kansas rodeos to give her mare the ground she likes.

“Then we’ll just play it by ear,” Routier said. “I usually try not to rodeo much after the middle of August, but if we have to, we probably will.”

Full NFR Open Barrel Racing Results:

Pool A: First round leaders: 1. Emily Beisel, 17.03 seconds, $3,000; 2. (tie) Megan McLeod-Sprague and Ashley Castleberry, 17.06, $1,875 each; 4. Tayla Moeykens, 17.22, $750; 5. Erin Wetzel, 17.24; 6. Taylor Manning, 17.28; 7. Ronda Casey, 17.30; 8. Jodi Lyn Colton, 18.76; 9. Brittany Pozzi Tonozzi, 19.18.
Second round: 1. Tayla Moeykens, 16.66 seconds, $3,000; 2. Emily Beisel, 16.90, $2,250; 3. Erin Wetzel, 17.05, $1,500; 4. Ronda Casey, 17.06, $750; 5. Ashley Castleberry, 17.33; 6. Megan McLeod-Sprague, 17.37; 7. Jodi Lyn Colton, 18.26; 8. Taylor Manning, 22.22; 9. Brittany Pozzi Tonozzi, 34.87.
Qualifiers: 1. Tayla Moeykens, 33.88 seconds on two head; 2. Emily Beisel, 33.93; 3. Erin Wetzel, 34.29.
Pool B: First round: 1. Sue Smith, 16.88 seconds, $3,000; 2. Jessica Routier, 17.02, $2,250; 3. Shelby Bates, 17.06, $1,500; 4. Sharon Gow, 17.21, $750; 5. Madison Bean, 15.32; 6. Lacinda Rose, 17.37; 7. Kelly Yates, 17.46; 8. Luisa Herrera, 18.00; 9. Ali Allen, 22.43. 
Second round: 1. Kelly Yates, 16.89 seconds, $3,000; 2. Madison Bean, 16.97, $2,250; 3. Jessica Routier, 16.98, $1,500; 4. Sharon Gow, 17.04, $750; 5. Lacinda Rose, 17.16; 6. Shelby Bates, 17.23; 7. Luisa Herrera, 17.78; 8. Ali Allen, 20.24; 9. Sue Smith, 22.07.
Qualifiers: 1. Jessica Routier, 34.00 seconds on two head; 2. Sharon Gow, 35.25; 3. Madison Bean, 24.29.
Pool C: First round: 1. Savannah Bennett, 16.75 seconds, $3,000; 2. Lisa Lockhart, 16.84, $2,250; 3. Kathy Petska, 17.03, $1,500; 4. Chloe Gray, 17.06, $750; 5. (tie) Tara Seaton and Ashley Day, 17.13 each; 7. Brooke Wills, 17.15; 8. Kelly Allen, 17.22; 9. Tracy Nowlin, 17.30. 
Second round: 1. Chloe Gray, 16.60 seconds, $3,000; 2. Lisa Lockhart, 16.67, $2,250; 3. Kathy Petska, 16.93, $1,500; 4. Savannah Bennett, 16.97, $750; 5. Brooke Willis, 17.00; 6. Kelly Allen, 17.28; 7. (tie) Ashley Day Tracy Nowlin, 17.32 each; 9. Tara Seaton, 22.28.
Qualifiers: 1. Lisa Lockhart, 33.51 seconds on two head; 2. Chloe Gray, 33.66; 3. Savannah Bennett, 33.72.
Finals: 1. Jessica Routier, 16.59 seconds, $13,000; 2. Chloe Gray, 16.68, $10,000; 3. Lisa Lockhart, 16.77, $7,000; 4. (tie) Emily Beisel an