WPRA NEWS

Ultimate Goal for Otero is Gold at Season’s End

By Ann Bleiker

After a 10-year hiatus from the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo Carlee Otero made her return in 2024 for her fourth NFR qualification and she already has her eyes set on a fifth with the biggest goal yet for 2025.

“My smaller goal is to make the NFR but my ultimate goal this year is to go after the gold buckle,” stated Otero. “I plan to work hard and really focus on that goal this year because I think I have a team that can do it without a doubt, and I want it more than I have ever wanted it.”

With her first ever win at the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo in Denver that concluded on January 26th, she has positioned herself No. 3 in the world standings with $19,158 won already at just five rodeos.

“I have never won Denver,” noted Otero. “I have won a round and placed in a round not in the same years but have never even made the short round. I have never made it past my first two runs not even on Dillon.”

So what changed in 2025?

“My whole mindset this year has just changed,” Otero said. “I have bigger goals this year to accomplish, and I am just trying to stay focused on that. I went up there with a plan and stuck to it. After the Finals my plan if I went to Denver was to run Leroy, a younger horse that needs seasoned, and I stuck to that plan. Odessa was his first ProRodeo to go to and I just went to Denver and stayed focused and thought if it worked out great if not then it would be a good learning experience. He just kept showing up for me and working and I am so proud of him.”

She is referring to her 5-year-old palomino gelding registered HB Firewater Vanila. Leroy, who will turn 6 in May, returned to Otero’s barn in October after having been with Brett Monroe competing at futurities and jackpots.

“He is so talented and athletic that all the talent tools are there,” Otero stated when describing her new teammate. “He is still at that age where he needs to see the arena first. I think what helped him (the most in Denver) honestly is the fact that the committee let us in the arena before our runs. I took advantage of that and got him in the arena so he could see everything and just get comfortable with it. I got to work him on the weird pattern there and I think he was just more confident going in there. I think if we would have gone in cold turkey, it would have been a completely different situation.”

The prep work before the actual run can make all the difference in a winning run and that proved the case for Otero in the Mile High City in January. After making it through her bracket and then the semifinal round, she found herself in the Final Round but at the bottom of the ground in a 12-woman field. While bottom of the ground is not ideal for the majority of barrel racers, Otero didn’t let that phase her game plan

“He only has front shoes on and no back shoes,” stated the Perrin, Texas cowgirl. “A couple of girls came out saying the ground was deep and dry, but I just ignored that because he doesn’t know the difference. He hasn’t run enough in those situations, so I just stuck to my game plan, hit my spots and figured the rest would take care of itself.

“He runs on top of the ground across the pen and uses his backend so well around the turns that I feel like he is pulling and moving forward the whole time so that ground didn’t affect him as far as being a little bit deeper.”

They stopped the clock in a time of 14.71 seconds, just clipping Jordan Driver for the title. Driver finished in a time of 14.76. Although advancement is based on performance in the brackets, payouts are based on traditional first and second round times. Otero finished second in the first round in a time of 14.56 seconds behind Sharin Hall’s lighting fast time of 14.48. Otero was third in the second round with a time of 14.57 seconds. She won her semifinal round in a time of 14.92 seconds. All totaled she won $16,641 in Denver.

“My confidence in him is so high right now that I have decided I am going to take him to San Antonio,” Otero said. “That will be his first pen to go in cold turkey but Sly runs real hard and real aggressive and does his thing his way. Leroy is total opposite, and he waits on me and listens to me, so I am going to take advantage of him being at that stage. He has shown me now that he can compete with the best of them, which makes me super excited and more confident to try him in certain situations this winter.”

And while Otero is not 100-percent recovered from her cracked pelvis sustained at the NFR, she is not letting that slow her down much.

“I would say I am 85-90-percent back,” noted Otero. “I took two complete weeks off and felt like a bum. That helped more than anything. I just try to keep myself mobile with stretches and various exercises as that seems to be the key.

“No matter what, I am finding the good in everything that happens. That is different than I have been in the past. I always said I was that way but this year I am truly going to be that way.”