I'm scared to death… to not leave a legacy for my name, a legacy for my kids, a legacy for the sport, and do my part. When I look up at the end of the day, I want to know I left everything for this industry, my kids, my family, my friends, behind me. And that, when people talk about my name, my name is good. So I think being scared to death to not do that is something I feel every day,

NODFREE: If you look at an image of yourself, what are some of the things that go into how you want people see you? How much of that is a conscious decision? Or is it kind of random?

JC: (Laughs) My mom used to get so mad at me when I was little and in high school rodeo. We didn't have enough money to take our clothes to the cleaners. But I loved how sharp people looked that had their clothes cleaned. So we would be late running places because I wanted to iron my clothes, I wanted to fix my hair, and I wanted to look presentable. I don't know why or what made me that way, even from a young age. But the older I got, I knew you've got to look presentable. You've got to catch someone's eye. So my point was be a girl doing cool, manly things, but look feminine and pretty doing it. I think that has helped along the way. People and companies know that if they put their product on me, I'm going to do my best to look professional and sharp. I’ve always been that way since a young age.

NODFREE: So the saying is be an exclamation, not an explanation. What's the message behind that?

JC: No excuses… no excuses. That's one thing that I hear a lot. The saying is “sit with the winners, the conversation's different.” You're never going to catch a bunch of winners sitting around making excuses why they didn't do something. My thing is that, no matter your life circumstances, no matter your financial circumstances, no matter whatever, you have the opportunity. If you want to do it, you're going to have to be an exclamation in some areas. Whether it be your work ethic or whatever it might be, but you can't be an explanation of excuses.

NODFREE: There are a lot of great ropers competing at all levels, ages, events. How do you stay ahead?

JC: I told you… fear. Fear of not being there. I had a person, kind of a friend, tell me a long time ago "I can't wait until you have kids and then let's see how good you rope." And it just ticked me off! No, you don't rope because you choose not to rope. It's not your thing. But if it's my thing, don't tell me that I can't do it. To me it’s almost the fear of becoming irrelevant, not being able to prove that wrong. So I put in the work! I've always gained confidence, from knowing when I left my house, I was confident that I'd outworked anybody else going.

NODFREE: How’s that buckle feel?

JC: Man. It's funny… I've always said that stuff doesn't mean anything. You can get all the gold buckles you want and they're not going to hug you at the end of the day when you're having a bad day. They're not going to freaking tell you you're doing a good job. They're not going to say thanks mom or anything.

NODFREE: I don't know, they might tell you you're doing a good job.

JC: (Laughs) When I look at this buckle… It is metal, but it almost feels like it's just wrapped around all these emotions, blood, sweat, tears. I know that sounds so cliche, but for real. All of it! To me, I don't just see the gold. To me, it just looks like a big round thing of emotions that all came together. I get to wear them around now and be like, "Hey, look what went into this."

NODFREE: The finals were a huge moment but you’ve always been about progression. The next step! Is having the breakaway roping during the NFR(National Finals Rodeo) the next goal?

JC: Yeah! yeah! That's the next mountain. That's the next thing. That's what we're pulling for. That's what all of our dreams are. As fun as Texas was and how much we love that place. I mean, come on, who doesn't want to back in that Thomas and Mack and run one? That's the ultimate goal is to have those rodeo fans that are there, that atmosphere, that electricity and everything going on. To have 15 girls run at one every single night. That's the ultimate goal. And for those girls to walk on that world champion stage at the end of the 10th round with everybody else. I think they deserve it.

NODFREE: What’s a good Jackie overcame story?

JC: There was a point in my life where I stepped away from a place of comfort. It was easier. There was a safety net, people I loved, etc. I stepped away from that to do my own thing, because I've always wanted my own name. My own name, My own place, My own direction. In doing that, it was literally the scariest time of my entire life. So freaking scary... Not knowing if you’re going to fall flat on your face? Because there's a good chance. Just working my ever-loving butt off. I remember days of wondering how in the heck am I going to feed my horses? I've got to win here! I've got to win at this place in order to feed my horses or put diesel in this tank. I have to! You got to do it. And so getting through that initial couple of years and realizing that “holy crap, you've done a good job at this.” The ball just kept rolling and rolling and rolling. As long as you just keep moving forward, you can make it!

NODFREE: You're one of the crown jewels of rodeo. Have you always seen yourself that way? Has that been a goal?

JC: Well, before the thought of any of this came about of where Breakaway is right now, people would ask, "What do you want to do?" Well, there was no measure. None of this was around. The two things that I wanted to accomplish was when people had a conversation about the greatest women ropers in the world of all time, I wanted my name in the conversation. For forever and always! The second thing was I wanted to be in the Cowgirl Hall of Fame. If you get in the Cowgirl Hall of Fame, surely you've done something pretty phenomenal.

NODFREE: We know you're not done, not even close, but what is your message to the future generation of breakaway ropers and women’s rodeo athletes?

JC: Don't ever take for granted what the women ahead of you have laid for you, because the women ahead of me have done a damn good job of trying to get us in there. Not just women, there's guys, producers, roping producers, people behind these associations that added Breakaway long before the PRCA or the WPRA started these rodeos. So many people that have worked so hard. So when you guys get these opportunities, don't ever take them for granted. If it's what you want to do, you do it all out!