Balancing Act: Jill Tanner Keeps Family Focus While Navigating Breakaway Journey

Jill Tanner’s position is one other cowgirls would envy.

As ProRodeo’s summer schedule gets ready to hit its stride, the Stephenville, Texas resident finds herself sitting No. 7 in the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association’s World Breakaway Roping Standings with nearly $47,000 already accumulated. That puts her in a prime spot to finish among the top 15 and reach the National Breakaway Finals this December in Fort Worth.

Some cowgirls might be mapping out a loaded summer schedule, squeezing in every opportunity to compete, guaranteeing themselves the best shot at making the Finals.

Between soccer practice, junior rodeo events, and time with family, Tanner has other priorities.

“I’m rodeoing unconventionally this year,” she said with a laugh. “We’re playing it all by ear.”

It’s a response that feels appropriate since her path to this point has ben anything but conventional. Now 40 years old, Tanner is the daughter of Jimmie Cooper, the 1981 All-Around World Champion, and wife to Jimmy Tanner, a two-time National Finals Rodeo team roping average winner. Her brothers, Jake and Jim Ross, have also competed at NFR in team roping. She grew up with a rope in her hand and was active in the sport for years as junior, high school and collegiate athlete.

But after college, breakaway roping wasn’t a viable option for many cowgirls at a professional level. She ultimately refocused her ambitions on barrel racing, allowing her to travel with her husband and compete at the PRCA rodeos he was signing up for.

When breakaway roping's popularity started to surge, Tanner made the decision to give it another try around 2020, nearly a decade removed from the last time she swung a rope competitively.

“When I started back, I was so much more terrible than I thought I would be,” Tanner joked. “I was just overconfident thinking you could step away for something for that long and just jump right back into it and that was just not the case.”

After a lot of practice, she returned to form, culminating in 2021 when she won The American. Even at that point, Tanner admits she wasn’t roping her best, but had a fortuitous string of events that helped get the victory and regain a lot of confidence.

In the years since, she’s inched her way up the standings, finishing inside the top 45 every season since 2022, including back-to-back showings inside the top 30 each of the last two years.

This winter, everything came together for an emotional showing in Fort Worth. In December 2025, Tanner’s mother, Shryl Cooper, passed away unexpectedly at 70 years old following complications from back surgery.

Tanner’s return to the arena came at the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo in early February. After tying for fifth in the opening round of Bracket 5, Tanner got into a three-way tie for second-place during the second-go. She then finished runner-up in the wild card to secure a spot in the semifinals. From there, Tanner blazed her way to a 2.3-second effort in the semis and a flat 2.0 in the finals, both of which resulted in wins.

“It was kind of hard to hold it together, but it was very cool. Fort Worth is a rodeo that everyone dreams of winning. It was pretty darn special,” Tanner said.

That one result netted more than $27,000 and has set Tanner up for that self-described unconventional approach to the rest of the season. During the winter, she went only to the Texas swing rodeos – Fort Worth, San Antonio, Houston, Austin and San Angelo. Among all the cowgirls in the top 20, she has the fewest appearances, having run at only 10 places so far. Only two other competitors in the top 20 – Hali Williams (14) and Cadee Williams (12) – are under 17 rodeos.

That means Tanner has options. She can enter where she wants, when she wants for the rest of the season. But that is not how she will be approaching the coming months.

Back home in Stephenville, the Tanner house serves as the de facto family hub. Her father lives about a mile in one direction, while one of her brothers is about a mile down the road the opposite way. Family dinners are a regular occurrence and pop-ins are not only encouraged but expected. Additionally, Tanner’s daughter, George, has a blossoming passion for youth soccer and, of course, roping.

“Every time you look at her, she’s got a rope in her hands, whether being in our living room roping a dummy or outside. It’s so funny for me to see her so eaten up with it so early,” Tanner said. “She wants to run everyone. And that’s totally fine with me. I love it. I’m to the point when I’m here to help her. She has two roping things that she’s going to do tomorrow here in the town. And she is so excited about it. That’s more fun than me getting rope.”

Which makes the coming months interesting. There will be plenty of chances for Tanner and her primary mount, Pepto, to back into a box, anticipating when the calf will come out of the chute. The duo picked up additional money in Union, Ore., and Driggs, Idaho, in mid-June during some of her first runs outside of Texas this season.

There are plans to be at places like Cheyenne and Calgary – although they’re tentative at best.

“Historically what you do is you leave by June 1 and you’re gone June, July and August and then you go home in September. With our family situation now, I’m just not going to do that,” Tanner said. “I’m going to end up skipping a whole lot of rodeo this year but I’m OK with that. I’m going to go to the ones that work with our schedule, some of the bigger rodeos, and then some of the other ones I’m going to cheer my friends on from home.”

If things keep trending like they have, Tanner has a shot to be in Fort Worth this December for her first National Breakaway Finals. But she will not sacrifice family, particularly supporting her daughter, for a chance at a world title.

The path forward is starting to take shape as the soccer and junior rodeo schedules are set. Tanner already has plans to drive here, fly there, then fly back home, and so on. It’ll be hectic, if not downright chaotic. She's got a support system of family and friends that will move her horses from one location to the other when she has to be away. And, if it’s not working, she’s fine not pushing it.

No matter what unfolds in the arena, Tanner’s priorities outside of competition keep her rooted. And if the end result happens to come with a gold buckle, so be it.

“I’m at a different season in my life because I know I’m almost done trying to rope at the level that I’m roping at. I don’t think I’m too far from just saying I’m going to rope at the house with my daughter and make some horses for her. It’s funny, I feel like I’m getting closer to the point that I’ve wanted to be the last five years of this, but I’m also at the end of it,” Tanner said. “It would be nice to say, ‘Hey, that (limited schedule) worked out really good.’ But I’m also a really big believer in God‘s plan. I believe if (Finals) is where God wants me to be then I’ll be there and if not, I’m OK with that.”

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