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NOTABLE NON PRO Jecca Ostrander lives the cow horse lifestyle and found that cow horse competition fits her to a tee. By Larri Jo Starkey
I
n the Nebraska Sandhills, under a bright blue sky that stretches for miles, a woman casually builds a loop as she rides her chestnut horse. Her hands are practiced, and her horse lets his ears rest as he waits for her to finish the familiar activity. She swings her loop, once, twice, four times before sailing it out to settle around the neck of a calf. The woman’s son comes in behind her and ropes the heels, stretching the calf out for vaccinations and branding. There’s no fuss, and the process is smooth and efficient. The family is doing ranch work, just as it has done for six generations. What’s new is that the rope horse is a stallion with more than $160,000 in earnings and several championship titles to his name. The woman is among the top 60 Non Pro riders in the National Reined Cow Horse Association. And the Box O Ranch from Gordon, Nebraska, doesn’t just run cattle—it also breeds top Quarter Horses. “I think, in my own name, I’ve raised horses for more than 40 years,” says Jecca Ostrander. “I bred horses before [Cash and I] got married, and we’re looking at our 40th year of marriage.” Ostrander was born into a multigenerational ranching family.
40 MAY/JUNE 2022 | REINED COW HORSE NEWS
“My grandmother on my mom’s side, my Grandma Ruth, lost her husband to a hay sled accident when my mom was 8 and her brother John was 5,” Ostrander said. “In that era, women did not run ranches. It was just not done. Everyone told her to sell it and go on, and she did exactly not what her husband told her. “My mom watched her mother ranch and run the operation,” she continued. “Then hire and get out of bad situations because they didn’t hire well. Then my mom married a rancher from the same area, and they bought a piece of ground when they were very young and worked the rest of their lives with it. My brother is on that place, and I married into another very established ranching family in this area.” Ostrander’s great-aunt, Margaret Hawkins, still barrel raced competitively at age 82. Ostrander’s uncle, John Lewis Jensen, is a steer roper who was inducted into the Nebraska Sandhills Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2021. He’s also Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association Gold Card holder.
ADDING COMPETITION TO THE EQUATION
Ostrander grew up on a horse, steeped in ranch lore, and raised her own chil-
On the Willow Creek Ranch in Gordon, Nebraska, Jecca and Cash Ostrander (right) work daily with her son, Stetson, and watch their grandchildren learn to love ranch life.
dren in it, who have raised their own children in it. She has team roped and barrel raced and done everything on a ranch horseback. But cow horse competition was new to her. “We had shown at the Black Hill stock show in ranch competitions up there,” Ostrander said. “I had shown at ranch horse competitions in Torrington, [Wyoming]. So, we started with the boys in the youth classes and then I started showing.” About the same time, the American Quarter Horse Association introduced the Ranching Heritage program. Ostrander and her husband, Cash, looked at their own breeding program and decided that kind of competition would exactly fit them and their horses. “I actually flew to Fort Worth for the first show they had down there in 2012 and watched it,” Ostrander said. “I had never been to Fort Worth before. Went
