Fresh off her first qualification to the Wrangler National Finals Breakaway Roping (NFBR), Danielle Lowman punched her ticket to the Showdown Round of the WCRA Cowtown Christmas Championship Rodeo after winning the third and final qualifying performance with a run of 2.08 seconds on December 17, 2021.
Lowman was gunner on Friday night and held on through a tough set of ropers that included the WCRA Leaderboard number one, Josie Conner, two-time Women’s Rodeo World Championship Champ Madison Outhier along with 20-time WPRA World Champ Jackie Crawford to win the night and $1,600.
Conner was second best with a time of 2.78 seconds but as the number one seed, her qualification falls to the next cowgirl in line who happened to be Outhier. Outhier stopped the clock at 3.28, roping last as she was awarded the extra calf after her original draw refused to cooperate in the chutes.
Taking advantage of being in Fort Worth early, Lowman came and watched the second perf on Thursday night.
“I came down just because I was first out and I figured I better take a look at it,” Lowman said.
The start inside Cowtown Coliseum is generally really quick, but this week the ladies have had to be more patient in the corner.
“The cattle are pretty average but you sure had to make sure you saw something,” Lowman noted. “It was actually pretty fun, seeing something like that in this arena.”
“I thought, if I just saw my start, try to stick him as fast as I could and sure enough, he stepped to the right out of there and I could see him fast and it all worked out.”
Lowman called upon her repurposed head horse, Little Mo, for the ride. Little Mo carried Lowman to ninth in the final WPRA ProRodeo Breakaway World standings this year with over $44,000 won and to all of her $8,574 Wrangler NFBR earnings.
“I got him two years ago,” Lowman said, “so this has just been his first two years of breakaway roping. I hadn’t roped on him since the Finals so I got on and scored him some today and that felt good.”
One challenge for Lowman was a dog act during the commercial break prior to the breakaway roping that had the crowd roaring its approval.
“He doesn’t like noise,” she said of Little Mo. “He likes to just do his job and leave so it was challenging for him, waiting down there while the people were cheering for the dog.”
Lowman handles his anxiety by trying to just keep him moving.
“I try to just ride him out of it and keep him calm,” she said. “He did good. I’m excited for tomorrow.”
Lowman will square off against six other ropers in the Showdown Round on Saturday night. The top three from that round will rope again in the Triple Crown Round where the sudden death winner will walk away $12,500 richer.
“I’m just going to try to do the same thing; hopefully, I’ll draw good and use him to my advantage,” Lowman said. “I’ve got a long drive home so I plan to do my job, make the drive better.”
Lowman is a big fan of the WCRA’s events and said it was definitely worth the drive from Vegas, passed her home in Arizona, back to Texas this week.
“Everywhere I’ve been, they’ve had a neat set up and the women’s rodeo deal they do for us [the Women’s Rodeo World Championship] is a life changing deal so we sure want to support them for that.”
“I love their format and they give a lot of people opportunities to win,” she continued. “WCRA does a great job for all of us.”
The Showdown Round contestants for December 18:
Madison Outhier
Lari Dee Guy
Britta Strain
Hope Thompson
Tacy Kay Webb
Danielle Lowman
Josie Conner
