Jolee Lautaret-Jordan has been living the rodeo lifestyle since her childhood. At 39, Jolee is pursuing the sport she loves through the GCPRA and the California Circuit. She is the 2013 GCPRA Barrel Racing Champion, having won the title once before in 2007.
In addition to barrel racing, Jolee has also competed in team roping and breakaway roping. Her parents, Darrell and Dolli Lautaret also team rope. Jolee’s dad is a retired bull rider, and her mom is a former hunter/jumper turned barrel racer who trains all of the family’s horses. Jolee and her parents were team roping together in the GCPRA incentive up until injuries prevented Darrell from competing for a time. “I definitely look up to my family,” says Jolee, “my mom and my dad both. They’ve been very supportive of me. My mom has always trained the horses I’ve ridden and I’m always trying to be as good of a horsewoman as she is. My husband is a great supporter – he helps me with the mental and positive thinking and having the right perspective.”
Horses are naturally what most of Jolee’s life is centered around. These include Down Home Daisy and Classy Rose Bug, the two mares that Jolee and her mom barrel race on. Daisy is their seasoned rodeo horse, while Rose is still going through finishing. Jolee began the 2013 rodeo season on Rose, but as the GCPRA finals drew near, Jolee hadn’t won enough to qualify for the finals that are held only 45 minutes from her house. She ended up trading horses with her mom, Dolli, and both women were able to compete at the finals. Jolee says that trading horses back and forth with her mom works to their advantage. “It keeps the horses fresh. Whoever has the best opportunity with one horse or the other rides that one. If one of us wins it all goes back to the expenses – it’s kind of a common pot.”
Jolee and her husband Allan Jordan live at the edge of city limits in Kingman, Ariz. Their 20 acres are tucked in the foothills of the mountains. Allan rode bulls and competed in steer wrestling for 18 years, and today he works as a full time official with the PRCA judging rodeos. Jolee is a writer, and she writes for the WPRA. Her byline can also be found on examiner.com, an online program that she writes rodeo stories for. Additionally, Jolee works for Pro Rodeo Live and Rural Radio as one of the radio personalities that covers the NFR and other events. In addition to commentating the barrel racing and bull riding at the NFR, as well as the PRCA Champion Challenge, Jolee has also covered the PBR Finals.
While she has done event analysis for the WNFR for two years, Jolee’s dream is to be one of the competitors again. She barrel raced at the WNFR from 2002 – 2004. “That’s a pretty big goal,” says Jolee. “I don’t feel like it’s totally out of reach, but you don’t want to kill yourself and your horse to get it done. Every year my goal is to make it to my circuit finals and the Grand Canyon finals. Our goal is to have more money won at the end of the year than we spent, but that’s a difficult one to accomplish,” she said with a laugh. “At the core of it (rodeo) I love the horses and the challenge of competing with your animals. It’s getting tougher and tougher now with all of the good horses their breeding now. It’s that much harder and feels that much better when you win.”