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Get those points Jodi Bryant hadn’t planned on running for the barrel-racing record until her husband, Kevin, mentioned it about a year ago. “I don’t follow the points,” the Oklahoma native and speed events veteran said. But Kevin, the family’s statistician, does. “One day Kevin said, ‘You know, Jodi, you’re only 50 points away from being the lifetime paint leader in open barrels,’” she remembered. “I said, “Really?’ So we decided to go for it.” Fifty points may not sound like much, but it can take a lot of hauling to earn them. Especially if you live in Kingfisher, Oklahoma, a small farming community northwest of Oklahoma City. The Bryant and their sons, 11-year-old Dakota and 8-year-old Kelby, lived in Kingfisher for many years, where Kevin worked as location manager of the Mid-Oklahoma Coop. In September, he became location manager of the Green Country Coop, located in Grove, in the far eastern part of the state. The family, with their equine business, 4 B Performance Horses, planned to move to Grove in November. Although Oklahoma is home to some of the top names in barrel racing, such as six-time APHA World Champion Montie Mills of Tulsa, horse shows offering speed events have dwindled in the state during the last few years. “It’s hard to get those points because there’s not many speed events at the Paint shows in Oklahoma,” explained Jodi. “You have to haul to shows in Texas or Mississippi.” Children, jobs and a ranch to run made going for the record even more challenging. Then, there’s always the unpredictability of where—and if—you will win the points you need. The Bryants hauled George to shows twice a month, but the final points were the hardest to get. “We hoped to get the last points at Jackson, Mississippi, last fall,” Jodi recalled. “But when George fell during the class, that wiped us out.” “Then, we hit a barrel at another show, and an ice storm came in last February, so we couldn’t haul anywhere for a while. We couldn’t even open the door of the horse trailer.” By the time the Bryants finally pulled into Waco in May, they were ready for the journey to be over. “When we got the final points, we cried and hugged a lot,” Jodi said. Breaking the record was the finishing touch on the bold, black-and-white tovero’s show career. It also affirmed that a horse ridden and trained by a small farm family can run with the best barrel-racing horses in the world. |
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Memory lane Away from the hustle and bustle of city life, you can hear yourself think in the Northwest Oklahoma’s vast farmland. The sounds of insects mingle with the wind to create a symphony that can clear the cobwebs from your mind. Red clay fields as flat as a penny stretch as far as the eye can see, their fences often bordered with large, yellow sunflowers that nod in the breeze. When the wind kicks into gear, it churns the livestock ponds into a red, murky soup. “Try getting that red clay off a white horse,” Kevin said with a laugh as he shook his head. Inside their house in Kingfisher, the Bryants pulled out several scrapbooks that Kevin and Jodi’s mother made to preserve mementoes of their children’s rodeo careers. Jodi’s mother, Ann Dial, worked at the local newspaper in Vici, Oklahoma, the town where Jodi lived as a girl. Ann saved all the newspaper clippings that featured her daughter. “She even kept all my rodeo back number,” Jodi said. “In those days, the numbers were made from pieces of plastic tablecloths.” When Ann died in 1987, Jodi had enough clippings to fill two thick scrapbooks. “I always loved horses,” said Jodi, who is 37 years old. “My granddad bought my first horse when I was 5.” “When I was 6 years old, I started play-daying and ran barrels, poles and flag races. I went through junior rodeos, Little Britches and High School rodeos. Junior rodeos were really big back then.” The young speedster won the first of eight saddles when she was 12 years old. She qualified for the National High School Finals Rodeo four years in a row, from 1980-1983. By that time, she had me Kevin, whose grandfather, Marion Bryant, raised Quarter Horses. Kevin competed in bareback and saddle bronc riding on the High School rodeo team. He made the Oklahoma State Finals three times and the National High School Finals in 1982. A photo of the Oklahoma team a the Nationals in one of Kevin’s scrapbooks is a virtual “Who’s Who” of future professional rodeo greats. The team included World Champion bull rider Lane Frost, top Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association (PRCA) steer wrestler Sam Duvall, and PRCA bareback bronc rider Larry Scott. Kevin and Jodi, who were high school sweethearts, are in the picture, too. The couple married in 1987. “Instead of going out on a date, Kevin and I would practice roping. He would always beat me,” said Jodi, with a sigh. “If I had a colt that was a little waspy, I let him ride it. He’s real good at that.” From 1984 until 1989, Kevin and his grandfather stood two stallions, Three Bar O Lena (AQHA), a son of the great cutting horse Doc O Lena (AQHA), and Jet Carr (AQHA), a AA race and barrel horse who was a grandson of Jet Deck (AQHA), the champion runner. Kevin enjoyed campaigning the stallions and learning about bloodlines. In 1988, he and Jodi bought a Paint Horse filly at Triangle Sales Company in Shawnee, Oklahoma. “She was so nice,” Jodi recalled. “We called her ‘Raisin.’ We’ve been hooked on Paint Horses ever since.” In 1991, the Bryant purchased a palomino overo called Ima Blu Eyed Blond, who was Reserve High-Point Amateur Speedhorse with Kevin at the 1996 APHA Congress. The mare also earned Registers of Merit in amateur barrel racing, pole bending and stake race. In 1996, the couple purchased Timely Lady, a sorrel overo mare who Jodi placed in the Top 10 in amateur pole bending at the 1997 World Championship Paint Horse Show. Jodi continued to run barrels with Timely Lady, whose barn name is “Rody,” for two years. Meanwhile, another barrel horse against which they were competing caught the Bryant’s attention. |