[ I’ve been using 5 Star pads forever; I’ve tried them all and I love the way they fit.” Sissy has a horse that’s 16.2 hands and she doesn’t have to cinch her saddle up to prevent it from rolling. “I’ve got one horse that’s 16 2, and my saddle doesn’t roll, it has to do with my pad. I don’t have to cinch up so tight.” ]
“Making it to Vegas still brings tears to my eyes,” said 25-year old Sissy Winn. “I put in the hard work and it happened. Looking back, I thought it was going to be easier than it is. What we sacrifice to keep going to the next one is worth it, but we give up a lot. This summer, my dad (Tom) will take one trailer and my mom (Melissa) will take another one and I will fly back and forth.” She is quick to give her parents the credit for her success. She entered her first NFR ranked 7th in the world and finished ranked 13th with $149,156 after winning $47,308.
Sissy, who was named after an aunt that passed away, had her future as a lawyer planned out. She graduated Texas A&M University at College Station Magna cum laude with an ag leadership and development degree. “I was studying for the LSAT, and trying to go down the road,” she said. “I wasn’t doing either one very well, I had the horses to go.” She grew up competing in every event in rodeo offered to young girls in southern Texas. She is a 7x National High School qualifier and won the coveted Texas High School Rodeo Association All Around Cowgirl in 2013.
She and her older sister, Amy, shared horses growing up. “We had the same horse for every event,” said Sissy, who spent a few years getting the horsepower she needed to make her first NFR last year. She has two horses that are NFR capable – Chewy and his newest partner, Scoop. “Chewy is scared of men, he won’t let a man catch him.” Chewy got his name from his habit of chewing things. She was looking for a good second horse and found Scoop. “I’m going to love Houston because I have a horse that will love Houston – Scoop. I got him from Danielle Campbell who trained and futuritied on him and we made the NFR last year.” She travels with one of her parents, two horses, and two “support” ponies. It is a drive to get anywhere from her home in Chapman Ranch, in southern Texas. “I drag them everywhere with me; I don’t go by myself. My mom and I did Jackson this week – 13 hours one way.” Chapman Ranch is a small community that used to be part of the King Ranch. It is 15 miles from Corpus Christi and the Gulf of Mexico; a few hundred miles from the Mexico border. “Anytime we see a horse trailer, I’m so excited and then I wonder who it is.” She didn’t spend much time at the beach as a kid. “I appreciate it more now than I did back then.”
She won the 2022 Jerry Ann Taylor Best Dressed Award at the Fort Worth (TX) Stock Show and Rodeo, presented by National Cowgirl of Fame. “I pursued the queen title in junior high because not very many girls competed in rodeo as well as represented the rodeo as a queen; I love to dress up and talk about rodeo.” She was able to do that as she was a former Miss Rodeo Texas Princess (2011) and Miss Rodeo Texas Teen (2015). She and her mom enjoy picking out the outfits. “I want some nice pictures, so it comes easy to dress up.” All her shirts and pants are Rock and Roll and Panhandle. “I love the season I’m in, but I want to have a family and enjoy that in the future.” “Keep going …. It might be better than you ever imagined.”