An Interview with Jennifer Williams

(2001) - We’ve had suggestions to interview some of the rodeo wives to give people an insiders view of what “rodeo life” is like behind the scenes.
I’ve known Jennifer for many years and often admire her stamina for the hectic life she and Speed live. Jennifer grew up riding from the time she could walk. Her dad, Phil Shurden, is a horse trainer and shoer. Jennifer and her sisters, Heather and Kelli Jo, grew up playing polo and at the age of sixteen, Jennifer turned down the opportunity to turn professional because the family had started team roping and she was bitten by the “roping bug.” Though she doesn’t rope as much now, this summer she and partner, Sonny Gould, won $17,000 each by placing 2nd in the Reno Invitational roping (the day after Speed and won the BFI).

How did you and Speedy meet?
In the summer of 1995 our family went to a roping school in Tennessee. He was teaching the heading and Bronc Fanning and Tom Bourne were the heeling instructors. I went to learn to heel and my sisters went to head. But, every day when the headers and heelers separated to rope the dummy, he would make me stay and rope the heading dummy. So I didn’t like him very much. He seemed to like picking on me.
That September my sister, Kelli Jo, saw them at a rodeo and told them they could stay at our house and practice. So when I woke up they there were. That’s when we started talking and getting to know each other and became good friends.
Then we kind of went our own ways for a couple of years and ended up getting together in September of 1997. We got married on Christmas Eve, right after the National Finals that year.

And that started your “rodeoing” lifestyle?
Yes, the rodeos start up right after New Years every year and we’ve been going ever since.

What’s a typical day for you on the road, like when you’re gone for a two-month stretch?
We get up early and saddle all the horses and ride. Then depending on where we are, if we have an opportunity to rope before the rodeo we’ll usually practice a little. Speedy will work on his horses and get them tuned up. Loosening up their muscles and getting their mouth light. And get them scoring and breaking hard.

What is your favorite part of rodeoing and what you do?
What I love the most is that, even as hard as it is, I get to be with Speed all the time. This is my job and I still get to be with my husband. I definitely wouldn’t want to have a “nine to five” and only see him when he came home from the road. It enables us to be together and work towards the same goal.
I’m excited about how far rodeo has come, where it’s taken us and where it can still go. By that I mean the possiblity of bigger and less rodeos. They’ve talked about changing the amount of rodeos you can attend from 100 to 50.

How do you think that would change things?
It would be interesting as far as the year’s outcome. I think it would be good for the guys who have children and don’t want to travel as much. If you only had to go to 50 to qualify instead of a hundred, then a lot more people are going to be able to do that. That would be cutting the time in half basically and mean a lot more time at home.
For us, it would mean more time to work with our green horses. The younger horses don’t get ridden as much as we’d like because when you’re on the road you have to haul your good horses.

What’s your least favorite part of what you do?
Because of the way the rodeos are structured we have to go virtually all the time and don’t have much “down” time or time off to be home. We’ve never officially had our honeymoon yet. If there were less rodeos with bigger purses we could be home more and it wouldn’t be so hectic.

Obviously you and Speed are a team. What are your responsibilities or contribution to the team?
Well, on the road if we have a long drive I’ll try to take care of most of the driving, whether’s it me or bringing someone along to help, so he can be rested up when we get there.
Once we get to a rodeo, he’ll go find the steer he’s drawn and check him out. He’ll try to find who has run him before to see what he can expect. While he’s doing that I’ll take care of the horses and then start riding. If we have time, usually I’ll start this an hour or two before he ropes.

What kind of riding or drills do you do on a horse before a rodeo?
It depends, take the National Finals for example. I’ve already filmed the steers and we’ve made notes on every steer and whether he runs, is slow, has a head trick, etc. So when he finds out what he’s drawn he’ll tell me what the steer does.
If they’re slow I’ll take Viper through a different routine than if they’re fast. If it’s a runner, I’ll loosen him up really well. I don’t work on his mouth and getting him tired and relaxed as much because I know the steer’s going to run. I have to make sure that he’s loose and limber and has a lot of wind and I’ll breeze him more. It usually takes an hour and a half to two hours for that.
If the steer is slow I’ll do more short working. I might just breeze him once or twice and I’ll work more on getting his mouth lighter where he’ll respond better. I’ll get him a little tired and more laid back where he won’t just want to break and run when the gates bang.

What was your biggest surprise or not expecting about rodeo life style?
It’s a lot harder than I expected. When you don’t do this for a living, it looks like all glitz and glamour. Of all the things I’ve done in my life it’s probably the hardest thing I’ve taken on, as far as being able to “hang.”

What do you mean by “hang.”?
It’s a lot of hours. It’s not as much fun or as glamorous as people perceive. Like at the National Finals where we’re very visible, I’ve heard the statement a thousand times, “It must be great to be you. You have so much fun and get to do so much.”
For people who watch rodeo from the outside it’s a different prespective. They can get to the rodeo, get their hot dogs and drinks and then find their seat and watch the show from start to finish. They leave and hopefully think it’s great and have a good time.
For us, as competitors, it’s a completely different perspective. Whenever possible we’ll get there early but a lot of times we’re driving in from another rodeo as the performance is starting. We’ll pull the horses off and I’ll start saddling and riding while Speed’s checking the steer he’s drawn. Then he has to pick out the rope to best fit the steer’s horns.
Then as soon as he’s almost ready to make his run, I run up and find a spot to film him from. I film all their runs so they can study them later.
When they’re through roping we load back up, and head to the next place we’re up; and the rodeo is usually still going on. It’s not always like this way but a lot times it is.
That’s the part most people don’t see. When you go to four or five rodeos in a week, it’s very fast paced. It can be pretty tough to “hang” with this pace.

I respect you and Speed both as horsemen. How do the two of you differ in opinion on horses and what you look for in one?
What we both initially look at in a horse is totally opposite. He tends to take in their whole conformation. If he sees a horse with that great build, who’s big and stout with the long mane and tail, he’ll be more lenient about the rest of him.
I’ll look at their conformation, but I’m just as concerned with their mind-set. I look at their eye and disposition. If he’s good there then a short mane or tail won’t bother me like it would Speed.

When I interviewed Tyler Magnus last year, he talked about looking at a horses’ eye. Explain what you’re looking for.
I guess it’s an old horse trainer’s philosophy. It’s not a good sign if a horse’s eye is really small and sunk in their head, or has a lot of white around the eye as opposed to their pupil being big and soft. If a horse has an eye that protrudes out more, with a big pupil, that’s called a softer eye.
The softer-eyed horses tend to be smarter and easier to work with. A tight-eyed or white-eyed horse tends to be less intelligent and more spooky which makes it harder to work with him.

If you had a day to do anything you wanted, what would it be?
When we have a day off when we’re not tired, which pretty seldom, we’ll usually go rope together a little. Not as much to work, but to take the young horses and the two of us have some fun. Sometimes we’ll play racquetball.
Some days we like to lock the doors, drop the shades and watch a good movie. We travel so much that when we do have time off we enjoy being home.

Besides what you normally do, what are you passionate about?
I really enjoy my computer. I would like to learn how to build web sites. That kind of stuff really peaks my interest.

Who do you admire in rodeo?
As far as the guys go, I admire Clay O. He reminds me of the classic gentleman in the old black and white movies who is always polite to women. Being around him and his family, he’s a great father and he treats his wife with so much respect. I really admire that.
In the arena, no matter what kind of run or day he’s had, he always has a smile on his face. We’re around each other a lot and he always takes the time to smile and speak. He’s a great role model for the kids.
Of the women I know in rodeo I admire Peggy Bach, though I don’t know her that well. I also admire Beth Cooper.
I have to say I have a lot of admiration for Londa Pogue. As long as I’ve been going with Speed, she’s been out there with Charles too. They say after you’ve been married for a while that kind of slacks off, but you see her out there knocking down the miles with Charles. They remind me a lot of me and Speed in that they compliment each other and their combination makes a good whole. She helps Charles and no matter how things are going, she’s always smiling.

When the roping or rodeo isn’t going that well, or morale’s down, how do you handle it?
It’s hard to sit back and be quiet sometimes. But guys that rope together have their own marriage of a sort. It’s a marriage of it’s own and not me, nor anyone else needs to cross those boundaries. I have a tendency to want to “fix it” and make things better, but it’s not for me to work out.
When things don’t go well, regardless of my actual opinion, I try to sit back and say, “There’s always tomorrow.” But when things aren’t going good for your husband, it’s very hard to seem impersonal and stand back but I try.