Letcher resident Jill Moody has accomplished quite a bit in her professional rodeo career, especially this season. She's competed on the Wrangler Pro Rodeo Tour, where this year she finished fourth in barrel racing.
She's participated in some of the biggest rodeos across the country, and has even vaulted all the way up to No. 4 in the barrel racing world rankings, based on her winnings of more than $85,000 dollars at 61 rodeos this year.
But for all the success Moody has had in 2007, the best year of her career, there still is one thing she hasn't done. She hasn't competed in the National Finals Rodeo.
That will change Thursday when the NFR -- a 10-day event held annually at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas -- gets under way with Moody as a competitor for the first time in her career. The NFR, which includes the top 15 money-earners in each event, is the biggest event of the rodeo season, and is often called the Super Bowl of rodeo.
"This is the Granddaddy -- the big one," Moody said. "That's most peoples' goal when they start out the year. A lot of kids have the goal to go the NFR when they grow up. It's kind of big deal."
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For Moody, the big stage in Las Vegas will be a completely new experience. She said she has never been there before, even as a spectator.
"I think that's why I'm not nervous," Moody said. "I don't really know what to expect. When I get there, it might be a little overwhelming, but it's still a rodeo. It's going to be the same girls I rode against all summer. There won't be any surprises."
Moody's surge in winnings this year and rise up the rankings wasn't by accident, and it shouldn't really come as a surprise. Moody said this is the first year she has made a concerted effort to increase her earnings and move up the rankings by competing in more of the larger rodeos -- the ones with the bigger payouts. Moody's biggest win came in Reno in late June, when she took home more than $8,000.
"I've been in top 25, the top 50 before, but I never really went hard," she said. "You have to cover a lot of the country. It was just bad circumstances and bad timing in my life, so I never really tried. This year I decided to try a little harder. I decided I should go to the bigger rodeos where I hadn't before, where the payoffs are bigger."
The results became immediately apparent, as she began to climb the rankings, finally cracking the top five after her finish at Reno. Now, Moody has her sights set even higher.
"At first I just wanted to stay in top 15, and that was pretty exciting," she said. "Then I just jumped into top five and I've been hanging in there. At first it was cool to be in the top 15, but now I'm in the top five, and now that's not good enough either."
It might be a longshot for Moody to come away with the overall title at the NFR, which begins Thursday and runs through Dec. 15. Still, she says she thinks she has what it takes to come away with a win in at least one of the ten performances -- a win that would come with a payout of around $15,000 for each performance.
Winning a round at the NFR would boost Moody's yearly earnings to $100,000, which she said has become a goal of hers as the season progressed.
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"Honestly, I think I have a pretty good shot at a round or two," Moody said. "As far as winning the average, my horse has been unpredictable. It would surprise me if I could make ten rounds without knocking a barrel over. That's what it will take to win the average, and I don't see my horse going 10 rounds without knocking anything."
Still, Moody knows anything can happen.
"If I don't try, I'm certainly not going to get to No. 1," she said.
