Spanish Fork’s Jade Rindlisbacher ends high school rodeo career as world champ
Jade Rindlisbacher of the Juab rodeo club competes in the pole bending at the 2018 Utah High School Rodeo Finals in Heber City on June 8, 2018.
Spanish Fork's Jade Rindlisbacher competes in the barrel racing in the National High School Finals Rodeo in Guthrie, Oklahoma, in July, 2020.
Spanish Fork's Jade Rindlisbacher gets a fire engine ride to celebrate her 2020 World Championship in high school barrel racing that she won at the National High School Finals Rodeo in Guthrie, Oklahoma, in July, 2020.
Spanish Fork freshman Jade Rindlisbacher competes in the pole-pending event during the National High School Rodeo Finals in Gillette, Wyoming, in July, 2017.
Jade Rindlisbacher celebrates as she is awarded first place in the pole bending event during the 2017 UHSRA high school rodeo state championships Saturday, June 3, 2017 in Heber. DOMINIC VALENTE, Daily Herald
Jade Rindlisbacher, of the Juab rodeo club, rides off after competing in the breakaway roping event during the UHSRA finals Saturday, June 9, 2018, at the Wasatch County Event Complex in Heber. Isaac Hale, Daily Herald
It’s likely that most people would love to forget 2020 with all of its disruptions and challenges.
Spanish Fork rodeo star Jade Rindlisbacher, however, has a reason to remember 2020 forever — and what a ride it was.
“It means a lot to me,” Rindlisbacher said in a phone interview on Monday. “Having the year we had with everything going on, this will be something I will remember for the rest of my life.”
Rindlisbacher, who graduated last spring, endured the tough times as the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the cancellation of her spring high school rodeo season.
At the state finals that were held in Hurricane in June, she finished second in the barrel racing and fourth in the pole bending, earning her one final trip to the national high school rodeo competition in mid-July to close out her high school career.
With the pandemic, however, nothing was certain.
“It was originally supposed to be in Lincoln, Nebraska, but they are struggling with COVID-19, so they decided to have the finals in Guthrie, Oklahoma, at the Lazy E Ranch,” Rindlisbacher said. “It was super-hot and humid but it was actually a lot of fun and turned out to be really, really cool.”
Even though there were differences from previous national competitions, Rindlisbacher said just being able to compete made it worthwhile.
“I was just glad they had the finals,” Rindlisbacher said. “I know the amount of work they had to put into having it because they had only like three weeks to plan it. They did an outstanding job and it was awesome. It felt like the nationals I’ve been to in the past but it was a little different. Australia couldn’t come because of everything and only a couple of people from Canada could come. But there were still a lot of people there and I met people from all over.”
Throughout her career, Rindlisbacher has had more success in pole bending than barrel racing — but that also turned out to be different this year.
“I ran barrels first and going in I just wanted to have a clean run because I had never competed in barrels at nationals before,” Rindlisbacher said. “I just wanted to go and get points for Utah as a team.”
But as she rode her horse (whose official name is Nanny.com but she calls him Viper) on that first run, she knew something special was happening.
“My horse felt so good out there,” Rindlisbacher said. “He knew we were going to run. He was all prancy and and antsy. I had never seen him act that way, so he knew he was going to run. He felt awesome and ran awesome. I ended up winning the first round by 3/10ths of a second, which was kind of a shocker to me but I knew my horse had it in him and all I had to do was stay out of his way.”
The stellar showing in the first performance put Rindlisbacher in a good position.
“Going into the second run, knowing what I had run, I just wanted to keep my barrels up so I could go to the short-go,” Rindlisbacher said. “I was a little nervous as I got ready and saddled my horse. But walking into the arena and seeing everyone, all the nerves flew out of me and I was just excited to run.”
But Rindlisbacher wasn’t the only cowgirl putting on a show, which meant it was a tight competition as the athletes got set for their final runs of the week.
“Going into the short-go, I was leading the average while Macee McAllister (who is from Utah and rodeos for Dixie) was in second,” Rindlisbacher said. “We were only 3/1,000ths of a second apart. It was very close while the girl in third was I think a tenth of a second behind us. We knew it was going to be a dogfight.”
Rindlisbacher and McAllister decided before the final round that no matter what happened, they weren’t going to let the results damage their friendship in anyway.
That friendship, however, made the short-go somewhat bittersweet for Rindlisbacher.
“Macee ran right before me and she hit a barrel, which took her out of it,” the Spanish Fork senior said. “That made my heart break for her. I was up right after her, so I was cheering her on and hoping she would keep them up and have a really good run. I was so sad for her but I knew I had to go do my run.”
Once again, Rindlisbacher focused on just making it through cleanly and then seeing how the results played out.
And she couldn’t have asked for it to go any better.
“When I saw the time after my short-go run, I knew I had won the world championship,” Rindlisbacher said. “The girl who was third ran a 15.3 or a 15.4 and I ran a 15.2. I knew I had to run fast if I wanted to win it. When I saw my time, I was so excited and so happy.”
She said she felt the satisfaction of finally achieving her goal of winning at nationals.
“There was some weight on my shoulders because I was putting pressure on myself,” Rindlisbacher said. “I knew I had to do that if I wanted to win it. When I knew I won it, overwhelming joy came over me. I even teared up a little because I was so excited. I felt like I was on Cloud 9.”
She said it was an amazing way to cap her high school rodeo career, a career that she feels has helped her understand the importance of never giving up.
“I’ve learned how to keep moving forward,” Rindlisbacher said. “In high school rodeo, everyone is going to have a bad run and we all compete in multiple events. No matter how many bad runs you have, you have to focus on making your next one good. With learning that, it shows me that in life if something bad happens I have to keep pushing forward to make something else good in my life. I can’t dwell on the past.”
Now she moves on to take the next step in her life as she heads to Utah Valley University to compete in college rodeo and start working toward a nursing degree.
“It almost feels like I’m growing up,” Rindlisbacher said. “I’m super-excited to start this new chapter of my life and experience college rodeos. I’m planning on hitting some pro rodeos in the next couple of years but I’m going to focus on school for my freshman year.”
She said going through the ups and downs of 2020 has taught her perseverance and appreciation for what she had.
“This was a sign that we can push through, that we can get through it together,” Rindlisbacher said. “I’ve gained a lot of confidence. The competition out there was so tough. I had to gain experience and confidence in my horse more than anything. I know my horse can do what he can do, that he had the potential to be at the top. It also made me grateful for everything.”
Here are the four Utah athletes who won world titles at the 2020 National High School Finals Rodeo in Guthrie, Oklahoma, in July:
Barrel Racing: Jade Rindlisbacher, Juab Rodeo Club
Trap shooting: Parker Fillmore, South Utah County Rodeo Club
Steer Wrestling: Cash Robb, Uintah Basin Rodeo Club
Light rifle: Beau Emett, Enterprise Rodeo Club