PRORODEO Sports News February Digital Edition

Jess Cardon is believed to be the first woman to serve as a pickup man at a PRCA circuit finals rodeo. PRCA photo by Crystal Amen

we haven’t planned a wedding,” she said. “Neither one of us is in a big hurry, and neither one of us is leaving, so we’re good.” When they’re not picking up at a rodeo – Car don estimates they work about 25 performances a year between various PRORODEOs, amateur events and ranch rodeos – they operate a beef cattle enterprise. Cardon took over her grandpar ents’ ranch. Their lives together go hand-in-hand or stirrup-to-stirrup. Without the rodeo work, they’d be doing something together on the ranch on the southern end of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

though she focused her studies on something altogether different at California State University-Bakersfield. “I was a studio arts major in college with a minor in communications,” she said. “I thought I was going to go that way, and things kind of just threw up walls and said, ‘No, you’re not headed that way.’” She even still dabbles in it when possible. Cardon and Reed produce a ranch rodeo every year, so she handles the advertising and marketing, which opens the door to her creative side. Most of the work she does, though, is unseen by most humans until she enters the rodeo arena. “It’s pretty amazing to think of the people that got me to this point because they have put so much faith in me,” Cardon said. “When I say that, I mean the Rosser family, the committees and the people just looking from the out side in. Those are the people that just built the industry.” That includes the contestants, the men who trust Reed and Cardon with their safety. When she made the list of those eligible to pick up at the circuit finals, they asked if she wanted to be there. “I said, ‘Freakin’ absolutely,’” she said, laughing again. “To know I have the horsepower to go right now says a lot. Horsepower is everything. You’ve got to have a few of them to pick up at this level, and they need to be good ones.” She has them, and she has the horsemanship and the capabilities to handle the tasks presented to her. “I really didn’t expect to get to this point,” Cardon said. “A lot of this just kind of came my way. I put my head down and went to work. I had some goals and thought it would be really cool to get to go to the circuit finals at least once. “I really love this industry, and I love every part of it. I don’t know where it’s going to take me or what I’m going to do with it, but I can guarantee I’ll give back. I don’t know how it’s going to go, but my efforts are going to go back into the industry.”

“If we’re not picking up somewhere, I don’t leave the ranch,” Cardon said with a laugh. “I stay home.” There’s plenty to do there. Besides cattle, Cardon and Reed also raise hors es. They have about 20 head of riding horses, then have mares and colts on top of that. “I quit counting how many we have for sure,” she said, a grin spreading while also exposing a bit of frustration. “My feed bill’s rough.” She has had four horses in Red Bluff, and the two have eight together. That was enough to get them through three performances of the circuit finale, but it’s also another extension of the work they do on a daily basis. This is something Cardon was meant to do. She was a baby the first time she was horseback, and she hasn’t been off much in the years since,

FEBRUARY 2026 PRORODEO SPORTS NEWS DIGITAL MAGAZINE 29