Page 64 - Barrel Stallion Register 2023

“... she’d do literally everything I needed to help me out.
She gave me back my confidence.” – Victoria Procter
tTammy with husband Brian, children Jack and Sydney and Ziva.
Tammy currently mentors Victoria Procter, who made the college rodeo finals in 2021 and ended up fifth in the nation her first year there. “I thought that was outstanding,” Tammy says.
The first horse Victoria ever went around the barrels on, at Tammy’s at age 12, was Trouble (Oaks Easy Too Dash, a 7/8-brother to Roundpen).
Rabbit (Famous Rabbit, by Famous Bugs and out of Whattaspecial Easter, by Special Shake) followed, but when he died the week before Victoria’s first college rodeo, Tammy helped her find and is helping her train Quincy (Dealin N Firewater, by Guys Real Deal and out of Fire Easy daughter Flittin Fire Bug),
and Bunny (NNN Sixums Firewater, by Deep Sixum and out of Miss Doubtfire Flit, by Fire Water Flit).
“After Rabbit died, Tammy would take me to the arena and let me bawl my eyes out for
30 minutes and then she’d be like, ‘Okay, we’ve got to fix this.’ She didn’t let me pout or throw a pity party; I was entered in a rodeo two days after he died. She’d get on behind me, she’d watch videos of me, she’d do literally everything I needed to help me out. She gave me back my confidence. And we’d haul together, which was great because whether we won first and second or we both hit all three barrels, when we’d get in the rig we’d be laughing. It’s just been a great environment to be around when you’re winning and when you’re losing.
“She’s helped me with my colts, too,” Victoria continues. “Tammy can make a great horse, and she can also make a great
jockey. That’s not easy, but she’s able to explain things in terms someone can easily understand. At a clinic recently, she related ideas to kids by comparing them to toothpaste and a candy store.”
FAMILY LIFE
In 2007, Tammy married Brian Fischer,
a custom home builder, and also the resident Tammy Fischer Barrel Horses jack of all trades, with whom she’d attended high school in Giddings. “He does everything—maintenance, mechanics—he helps with it all,” she says.
When they married, Tammy already had one son— Riley—and she gained a son with Brian— Jack, 23, who lives in Giddings and works at Maass Butane. Then in 2010, she and Brian had daughter Sydney—who also qualified for the NFR in Junior barrel racing in 2018.
These days, family keeps Tammy closer to home, where she competes mainly in amateur events along with helping tend the family’s cattle operation. But that doesn’t mean
she has slacked off. She and Brian support Sydney in extracurricular events that include volleyball, basketball, softball and youth rodeos, and Tammy still keeps 10-15 horses in training.
To justify keeping Ziva, Tammy has decided to also raise a few colts of her own to bring along. “I have some of Ziva’s babies coming up—a couple of Eddie Stinsons and a couple of JL Dash Ta Heavens—and I’d like to take them to futurities and see what they can accomplish,” she says.
“She’s a really hardworking person and very determined,” says Sherry Cervi Petska, who puts a high premium on Tammy’s friendship. “Friendships are important to me, and we’ve competed against each other and been friends for many years. There comes a time when rodeo and the horses won’t be there, but your friends always will.”
Victoria agrees with Sherry’s characterization of Tammy. “I’ve lived with Tammy’s family for three years and in the summer, we’ll get up at 5:30 a.m. Right now, she has 20 horses that have to be ridden every day and then we’ll go to a jackpot and run anywhere from six to 11 horses.”
“If Sydney takes her horse and Victoria takes hers, that leaves nine holes for me,” Tammy says. She manages to help a lot of kids and tune a lot of horses along the way as well.
“There’s no substitute for hard work,” Tammy says. “You have to stay hooked through the good and the bad because a lot of times it is a slow climb up the mountain to the top and a fast fall to the bottom. To balance that and stay at the top consistently is hard and you have to be dedicated and work hard to achieve that.
“It’s never-ending; it goes on continually,” Tammy explains. “I don’t think there’s ever a
day when we go, ‘Wow, what do you think we should do today?’ But I don’t consider my horses a job; I consider myself very blessed to be able to do what I love for a living.
“For me, it’s always about the horse,” she adds. “I want to try to make each one the greatest they can be. I’ve been lucky that I’ve ridden some famous horses and they’ve taught me a lot about barrel racing. I try to use that experience to bring up other young horses and make them great barrel horses to help make somebody else’s dreams come true.”
Which only goes to prove that for Tammy, other people and horses really do come first.
© Springer
62 SPEEDHORSE
“For me, it’s always about the horse. I want to try to make each one the greatest they can be.” – Tammy Fischer