Page 68 - BSR 2022

couple times a month and anyone who wants to can sign up and become a member and watch our training videos online anytime they want. We have Facebook and Instagram pages and it’s going really well.
“I hope it takes off and helps a lot of people!” she continues. “The industry is changing so fast now. We want to keep everybody in the know and help improve it, and try to get the barrel horses to the top level.”
Jolene calls barrel futurities the foundation of the industry. “It’s so lucrative; competitors have so much opportunity to win so much money, and that’s also where the best colts get sent to futurity trainers. So, you wouldn’t end up with nearly as many great open horses if it wasn’t for the futurity horses. That also spurs the breeding business and is exciting for the owners. I don’t think the barrel horse industry would be anywhere near where it is today without the futurity horses.”
Jolene and Kerby’s new adventures also include summiting 14,157-foot Mount Sneffels in the Rocky Mountains near Ouray, Colorado. “We just said we’ll get as far as we can go; we didn’t really plan on summiting the mountain, but we just gritted up and got stubborn and decided we were going on,” Jolene says. “It was a 14-mile round-trip hike that was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done in my life.”
Jolene with Makin Ya Shake It, the first foal by Makin Ya Famous that Molli Montgomery trained.
“I tell her she’s the Michael Jordan of barrel racing. You might beat her but you’re not going to outwork her and in the very end of the game, that person will ultimately win.” - Kerby Montgomery
NEW PARTNERSHIPS
While competing at various events for Jud, Jolene met barrel trainer Molli Montgomery.
In 2008, Molli set up her brother, Kerby Montgomery, with Jolene, and the match stuck.
“I was at the point where I thought there was nobody out there that could meet my expectations, but Molli knew the kind of girl I was interested in and wanted to be with,” Kerby says. “I had no idea what Jolene looked like, but she knew what I looked like because Molli showed her pictures. So, I thought, I’ll take my sister’s word for it.
“We talked for a few weeks and then went on a blind date,” Kerby says. “I only had a Plan A, but Jo had a Plan B: She later told me that she invited a couple friends to tag along in case it didn’t go right.”
Kerby didn’t need a Plan B. When he got back home, he told Molli, “I’m done; she’s it. “She’s a strong, independent woman and
I was pretty much raised by two strong, independent women — my mother and Molli. I had high expectations and I never wanted to settle for less.”
The couple married in 2010 but Jolene continued working at Jud’s while she and Kerby made plans to move to a place of their own and launch their own training operation, which Molli has since joined.
At their farm in Purdon, Texas, Kerby ropes some and breaks most of the colts that Jolene goes on to train in addition to a few outside colts. “I also take care of lots of horses
and fix everything my wife breaks,” he says jokingly. Since their personal and professional partnership began, Jolene has competed on an average of 10-12 horses per year.
One of her more recent success stories is Makin Ya Shake It. “He’s the first foal by Makin Ya Famous to run that Molli trained,” Jolene says. “I got him started late, but he’s placed in
a couple futurities already and I think he’s
going to be pretty special.”
NEW VENTURES
Jolene and Kerby have acquired Famous Sierra, a 6-year-old stallion, on whom Jolene futuritied last year. “I’ve got my pinkie toe dipped into the breeding business, and that’s probably as far as I want to get,” Jolene says. “He was such a nice colt that we didn’t geld him, and we have three broodmares and have been breeding a few for the last several years. Competing on the colts I’ve raised
is the newest thing I have going now. My oldest filly by my stud is a 2 year old, and it’s been really fun the last few years to ride foals out of mares that I rode at Jud’s.”
Jolene has also joined forces with friends Ashley Schafer and Joy Wargo to launch BetweenTheReins.us to help riders build their confidence and their riding and horsemanship skills. “We all work together and share ideas with each other,” she says. “It’s a video training subscription service, and Joy’s brainchild. We do training videos a
66 SPEEDHORSE
Jolene and her husband Kerby
Bee Silva