By Rich Winter

605 Sports

BUFFALO — With a grandmother that was once Miss Rodeo America and a father that was a college national champion in team roping, Jessica (Painter) Holmes was destined to be involved in rodeo.

A two-time Reserve All-Around Champion at the National High School Finals Rodeo, Painter ascended to the top tier of rodeo winning back-to-back pole bending championships in 2002 and 2003 on her horse Driftwood Mort.

“My horse and I really fit each other and I could feel every movement he made,” Holmes said. “A lot of horses are off once they make a mistake but Driftwood Mort would get right back to it.” 

 In four years of riding in the pole-bending event the tandem only knocked over two poles. Holmes said the reason horse and rider didn’t make a lot of mistakes was because she never let him go full tilt until the National High School Finals Rodeo. 

“I was pretty conservative,” Holmes said. “I was fine with running in the 20’s at regions and state and I never let him go until the finals.”

During the summer following her junior year of high school Holmes and Driftwood Mort sailed through the first two go-rounds and entered the short-go sitting second in the average. In the biggest moment, and on the biggest stage of her high school career, Holmes said she felt absolutely no pressure. 

“For me it was a cool opportunity,” Holmes said. “If you tip a pole or make a mistake you are going home so I just let my horse go and we were fortunate to win.

Holmes said winning a national title was pretty cool and she did so with a little fire in her belly for representing Team South Dakota. 

“We are a small state and it seemed like everyone was talking about Texas and Utah,” she said.”I made it a point to represent South Dakota and me winning just made the point that we belong here.” 

In the summer of 2003, after graduating high school Holmes approached defending her pole-bending title as if there’ was no target on her back

“My approach was how cool would it be to do it twice,” she said.

After the second national championship Holmes joined Kelli Powers (1968) and Jill Jans (1971) as the only South Dakotans to win a national title in pole-bending, and the only person to win it twice.

One of the more accomplished rodeo athletes of her era, Holmes was named Rookie All-Around at the South Dakota High School Rodeo Finals in her freshman year. In each of the next three years she won the All-Around title at the South Dakota state finals.

Holmes said winning a national title opened up many doors. 

“You get to meet a lot of people and doing rodeo helped me get a full-ride scholarship,” she said. 

Holmes attended National American University in Rapid City and while there she won a collegiate national title in breakaway roping.

After graduating from Harding County high school, Holmes coached for two years at National American University and then coached collegiately at Black Hills State. She has been inducted into the South Dakota Rodeo Hall of Fame and she and Driftwood Mort were inducted into the National Pole Bending Association Hall of Fame in 2013.

Holmes continues to rodeo in the Badlands Circuit Rodeos where she competes in the barrels, breakaway roping. Occasionally she’ll contest team roping while with her family at amateur rodeos or team roping jackpots.

Today, Jessica is married to Casey Holmes who participated in both high school and college rodeo. The couple are raising their three children, Tommi, Trey and Chase on their sprawling ranch located 17 miles outside of Buffalo.

As you might expect the next generation of athletes are knee deep in their love for rodeo.

“Tommi just missed making it to the National Junior High School Rodeo Finals,” she said. “Trey is into roping and we have to coax him into the house at night to get him to take a break from roping.”

 The Holmes’ have both an indoor and outdoor rodeo arena at their home. In addition to continuing to rodeo, Holmes is coaching younger athletes who come over to the ranch to work on their craft.