Kelsie Domer’s Road to Breakaway Gold
Written and Photographed By Dee Yates
When Kelsie Domer stepped into the box for her final run at the National Finals Breakaway Roping, the weight of history rested in her hands. Behind her lay thirteen years of professional competition, countless miles on the road, and a journey that began in the college arenas of Oklahoma. Ahead of her was the chance to claim her first ProRodeo world championship, a moment that would validate not just her own sacrifices, but those of an entire generation of breakaway ropers fighting for recognition. The miss that followed didn’t diminish the moment. If anything, it crystallized what makes Domer exceptional: her ability to find success through consistency rather than perfection, to build a championship season on the foundation of doing her job, night after night, rodeo after rodeo.
“I always say do your job,” Domer explains, reflecting on the mindset that carried her through ten rounds of competition at the South Point Arena. “The practice pen is for all those things, figuring out those different scenarios, trying different things, working on the areas you need to work on. That way when I go to a rodeo, I’m not going to try to do something different with my money up that I haven’t tried in the practice pen.” This philosophy represents more than just technical preparation. It embodies a deeper understanding of competitive excellence that separates champions from talented competitors who struggle under pressure.
Domer’s championship story begins in Oklahoma, where she grew up in a family that understood roping but hadn’t experienced the commitment level she would eventually embrace. Her parents were team ropers who competed at jackpots and ranch rodeos, providing her with the foundational skills but not the blueprint for professional success. “My mom and dad were team ropers, but nothing like me and my two brothers have done,” she recalls. “They knew how to rope, of course, and I learned how to rope from them…” That foundation led her to Weatherford, Oklahoma, where she attended Southwestern Oklahoma State University. Those five years of college rodeo became crucial in shaping not just her technical skills, but her understanding of what it meant to compete independently. The college experience taught her about traveling, about managing herself and her horses on the road, and about adapting when things didn’t go according to plan. These skills would prove invaluable when she made the jump to professional competition in 2011.
The decision to move to Texas marked a turning point in Domer’s career, providing her with an education that would shape her approach to professional competition for years to come. Living with Jackie Crawford and Charly Crawford for six to seven years provided her with an education that went far beyond technique. She was immersed in the culture of professional roping, learning not just how to compete, but how to prepare horses, manage the rigors of constant travel, and develop the mental fortitude required for sustained success. “I lived with Jackie for six or seven years when I first moved to Texas,” she explains. “I lived with her and Charly and helped them and learned a lot from them. I got to do clinics with her, I got to train horses with her, rope with her. And so, of course, that helped a lot.” The Crawford operation provided more than just technical instruction. It offered Domer a glimpse into what a professional career could look like, and the level of commitment required to sustain it. When she and her husband purchased their own place in Dublin, Texas, four years ago, she was ready to apply those lessons on her own terms.
Domer’s path to the 2024 world championship wasn’t built on spectacular individual performances but on remarkable consistency across seventy-five rodeos, a grinding schedule that tests the limits of both physical and mental endurance. This approach reflects a deep understanding of what it takes to succeed in a sport where two animals, multiple officials, and countless variables can affect every run. “I focus on what I can control and that helps me stay pretty calm,” she explains. “We’ve got two animals, a lot of different variables. We got a timer, we got a gate guy, we got a flagger, so I focus on what I can control.” That consistency becomes even more remarkable when considering the logistical challenges of her life on the road. With her two-year-old daughter Oaklynn traveling with her everywhere, Domer has had to reimagine what professional competition looks like. The support system she’s built, with her husband, mother, and aunt rotating to ensure she always has help with Oaklynn, demonstrates the village required to sustain a modern professional rodeo career. “Since I’ve had Oaklynn, I’ve had a family member go with me that way they can help me with her while I’m roping.”
What separates Domer from competitors who might possess similar technical skills is her approach to mental preparation, a philosophy that centers on using practice time to build confidence for competition rather than hoping to find solutions under the bright lights of competition. Her philosophy centers on using practice time to build confidence for competition, ensuring that when she enters the box, she’s relying on muscle memory rather than trying to problem-solve in real time. “The practice pen is where you get all your confidence, I think,” she notes. “That way when you go to the rodeo, it’s muscle memory, it’s reaction, and it’s just being confident and concentrating on your job and what you have practiced and not letting everybody else get to you.” This mental discipline showed throughout the finals. While other competitors struggled with the pressure of the moment, often trying to do more when earlier runs didn’t go as planned, Domer maintained her process-oriented approach. “I feel like we truly get in our way more than anything else,” she observes about competitors who struggle under pressure. “We start trying harder. Not that we’re already not trying hard, but we try to do more. We try to make things happen and there’s only so much you can make happen in a round.”
Behind every successful breakaway roper stands an exceptional horse, but as Domer emphasizes, having talent isn’t enough without proper management that extends far beyond basic care and feeding. Her approach to horse care reflects the same consistency and attention to detail that characterizes her competition strategy. “Got to have a good horse, and got to be able to manage that horse,” she states. “There’s a lot of good horses out there, but if you take the best horse in the world and give it to somebody and they don’t know how to manage that horse, that horse isn’t the best horse in the world anymore.” Her daily routine reflects this understanding. Whether at home or on the road, she maintains her horses’ conditioning and mental state through consistent work. This isn’t just about physical preparation but about maintaining the partnership that makes fast times possible. “I ride pretty close to every day,” she explains. “I’m sure gonna try to do something, whether it’s if I’ve got a young one or an outside horse or something, there’s something I’m going to try to do. Staying tuned up.” This dedication to horsemanship represents the foundation upon which all her competitive success is built, understanding that the relationship between horse and rider must be maintained through daily attention to detail.
Domer’s individual success occurs within the context of a broader movement in women’s rodeo, where the camaraderie among breakaway ropers has become as much a part of their success as their individual talent and dedication. The camaraderie among breakaway ropers, their collective push for equal recognition and pay, and their understanding that individual success contributes to the advancement of the entire discipline shapes how she approaches competition. “We’ve had to band together for a long time to push this event and get it bigger and better,” she explains. “We’ve been through all the highs and lows as a group really. We had to stick together because we had to show up every place and show support and say hey we’re going to be here if you back us.” This unity was evident throughout the finals, where competitors celebrated each other’s success while maintaining their competitive edge. For Domer, this balance between individual ambition and collective advancement represents the best of what rodeo can be, demonstrating that excellence in competition and support for fellow athletes are not mutually exclusive but rather complementary forces that elevate the entire sport.
As Domer prepares for the challenges ahead, including a clinic in Hawaii and the start of another grueling season, she carries with her the confidence that comes from proving her methods work at the highest level while maintaining perspective about what truly matters in both competition and life. Her championship validates not just her individual approach but the broader principle that consistency and preparation can triumph over flash and luck. “Everybody has their own book being written, so don’t compare your chapter five with somebody else’s chapter five,” she reflects, offering advice that applies beyond rodeo. “Be happy for them, be proud of them, but stick to yourself, be proud of yourself and do what you can do.” For young girls watching from the stands or following her journey through social media, Domer represents possibility. Her path from Oklahoma college student to world champion wasn’t built on overnight success but on the daily commitment to improvement, adaptation, and excellence. “If it’s truly in your heart and it’s something you want to do, you’ll find a way,” she says. “If not, you’ll find an excuse.”
Domer’s first ProRodeo world championship represents more than individual achievement, standing as testament to the power of persistence, the importance of building strong support systems, and the value of maintaining perspective in the face of both success and setback. As she reflects on that final run, the miss that didn’t define her season, Domer demonstrates the mental toughness that separates champions from competitors. “I’m not gonna take away from what I did before that,” she says, refusing to let a single moment overshadow months of excellence. In a sport where perfection is impossible and variables are endless, Kelsie Domer found a way to control what she could control. The result is a championship that validates her methods and provides a blueprint for the next generation of breakaway ropers ready to follow in her footsteps. As breakaway roping continues its push toward equal recognition and opportunity, champions like Domer prove that the talent and dedication are already there. The only question is when the rest of the rodeo world will fully recognize what those of us who witnessed her championship run already know: these athletes belong on rodeo’s biggest stages, and they’re ready to prove it every single night.
