Amy Ohrt has won $59,415.10 in her Resistol Rookie season and sits $1,812.78 behind Jaci Hammons in the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association’s Resistol Rookie breakaway standings after hitting the road in late March.
The Victoria, Texas, cowgirl was No. 15 in the rookie standings with $2,738.02 on April 16. Everything she has, she built after that.
“Man, it’s more than I had imagined,” Ohrt said. “I thought I just kept playing catch up and I wouldn’t have a chance, but now I have a pretty good chance. It’s blown my mind how the summer has went.”
Starting Late
Ohrt didn’t really start hitting the ProRodeo road hard until late March, which not only put her behind in money heading into the summer but also made it hard to get into a lot of the earlier rodeos.
“If I could go back and redo the whole entire year, it would be starting in September, starting when the year begins,” she said. “I was like, ‘I don’t really care about the rookie,’ which I did care, but whatever.”
Before she decided to take off, Ohrt was mostly focused on Texas circuit rodeos, where she sits in the No. 7 spot with $13,755 won in circuit money.
Where The Money Has Come From
Reno, Nevada, has been her best week and her favorite stop. Ohrt was No. 2 in Round 1 with a 2.3, and No. 5 in the average on three head in 10.3 for $8,233.
“Reno by far is the one that I’m like, ‘I want to go back,’” said the 21-year-old. “The whole rodeo itself was just awesome.”
Ohrt also took home a check from Sheridan, Wyoming, winning the average on two head in 4.5 seconds for $3,659. In April she won Round 2 at San Angelo, Texas, with a 2.0 and was No. 2 in the average on three head for $5,160 and she won Round 1 at Pecos, Texas, with a 3.2-second run for $2,255.
The Playoff Play
Ohrt is No. 12 in Cinch Playoff Series breakaway points with 627.60. The top 23 as of Monday make the field at Puyallup, Washington, Sept. 10-13, and the top four there advance to the Governor’s Cup in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Sept. 25-27, no matter where they sit in season points.
She is going to Puyallup and that is where the $1,812 can come from, because Jaci Hammons —who currently sits in the No. 1 spot in the rookie race—has almost no path to Puyallup. Hammons is No. 38 in playoff points with 215.16, and it took 401.72 to hold the last qualifying spot as of the Aug. 11 standings. Ohrt has 627.60. Unless Hammons climbs 15 spots by Monday, anything Ohrt wins in Washington is money the rookie leader has no way to answer.
The strategy came from Hali Williams, who Ohrt buddies with on the road.
“I asked her, I said, ‘What rodeos do I need to majorly hit?’” Ohrt said. “And she said, ‘You want to majorly hit the ones with the playoff points when you get them.’”
She’s also No. 23 in the world standings, $15,623.32 out of the No. 15 hole and a spot at the National Finals Breakaway Roping. She isn’t watching it.
“To be honest with you, I really don’t pay attention to it, because at the end of the day it’s God’s plan,” she said. “And if it’s his plan to make the NFR this year, then that’s just going to happen. If not, next year I’ll come back and be ready for it.”
Two Horses
Frothy Wild Card, “Frothy,” the 2013 gelding who carried Ohrt to the 2024 Women’s Rodeo World Championship and a $60,000 check at AT&T Stadium, is still her main mount, but he’s had help. Royal Desires, known as “Rosa,” is an 8-year-old mare Ohrt bought from a family friend after riding her two years.
Rosa gets the call in two different situations: when Frothy needs a break and when the calves are slower.
“She’s not everyone’s style, if that makes sense,” Ohrt said. “Everyone didn’t think she could be a really nice horse, and I felt it, and I wanted to prove that she can be one.”
“Majority of what I like to ride her on is when I have a slower calf,” Ohrt said. “When I rope, she’s already stopping and sucking back. She’s just going to take my rope away and make my time a lot faster than what Frothy would be.”
“She’s never really shortened me out. She never cut me off,” she said. “That’s just how she stops.”
Unimaginable
When it comes to traveling, she is flying solo.
Ohrt hauled by herself for close to two months to open the summer. Her mom is with her now, and she buddies with Williams, but the miles have mostly been hers, and she’s found she likes it that way.
Tuning out the noise is the biggest thing the year has taught her.
“You don’t have the drama, you don’t have the negative,” she said. “You’re shutting outside noise out. You don’t have to worry about, ‘Oh my gosh, she said this, she said that.’”
With less than two months left in the regular season, she summed her experience up in a word.
“The way I’d say my rookie year has been is just unimaginable,” she said. “Just something I never imagined.”
