Jackie Crawford and Ichis Brown Gypsy claimed the Limited Futurity Heading title at the 2026 Old West World Championships in Amarillo, Texas, Oct. 17, marking a special win for Crawford after two years of missed opportunities aboard the mare she has trained since she was a yearling.

Crawford, of Stephenville, Texas, rode the mare to an 889.12 on four head, finishing 4.20 points ahead of Britt Williams and Go Metallic, who took second with an 884.92 for $7,008. Mike Kunzler and Rebell Force finished third with an 884.21 for $5,607.

But for Crawford, the biggest relief wasn’t necessarily the $8,410 championship check, but rather that they put four runs together.

“I’m just so relieved that I finally caught all four steers,” Crawford laughed. “It’s got me in my feels a little bit because I’ve kind of been snakebit. I’ve missed a lot of steers in the last two years. I’ve cost this mare so much money to the point that I’ve even thought maybe I should let somebody else show her.”

Ichis Brown Gypsy, by Cat Ichi out of Parkers Brown Sugar, was bred by Joann Parker and is owned by Crawford. Having been part of the mare’s development from the beginning, Crawford wasn’t ready to hand over the reins, even when things weren’t going her way in the show pen.

“I was like, you know what? No. I trained her,” Crawford said. “I got her as a yearling. I trained her, and I want to show her. I have so much opportunity with the Limited and Intermediate, so I’ve just stuck with it, and she’s just going to have to put up with me.”

Crawford and Ichis Brown Gypsy opened the Futurity Heading with a 225.20 in Round 1, followed by a 224.75 in Round 2. But in the third round, Crawford broke the barrier, leaving the pair with a 211.06 and a 661.01 heading into the finals.

With the Limited title still within reach, Crawford knew the key wasn’t asking anything more of the mare—it was making sure she did her own job.

“I came back and I broke the barrier in the third one, which is a real bonehead move, I know,” Crawford said. “But I just told myself today, you have plenty of horse underneath you. It doesn’t matter. Make sure she’s going to sit there. She sits through the gates. Just make sure you get out and just go let her do her job out in the field.”

Crawford’s plan was to keep things simple, trust the training she’d put into the mare and let her work.

“It’s not like you have to try to do anything special to make her show,” Crawford said. “You just go through the motions and don’t skip anything and don’t get in a hurry, and she’s going to do what she does. So that’s what I did, and it worked.”

The pair answered with a 228.11 in the Limited finals, their highest score of the week, to secure the win.

For Crawford, Ichis Brown Gypsy’s natural way about her and her want to work have always made her stand out. The mare began her roping career roping calves, where her rate and ability to stop transferred to the head side with ease.

“I think she just has a really good presence about her,” Crawford said. “She’s got a lot of character in the way that she moves, and she wants to be on your team.”

That willingness is evident from the moment the mare leaves the box, according to Crawford.

“When she leaves the box, her ears are flat pinned and she’s after them, and she’s going to keep them pinned through the corner,” Crawford said.

“I don’t have to be on her a lot in the corner,” Crawford went on about how she rides the mare. “I just have to sit down and push where I want her to go. As long as I don’t try to cross up or get her on her butt too much, she stays really good on my hand.”

For Crawford, that fact contributes to what makes Ichis Brown Gypsy successful at the judged events.

“I think it just shows how in control and trained she is,” Crawford said. “As long as I do all that, I think that’s what makes her just score high.”

The win also represented something Crawford has valued throughout her career: winning on horses she’s trained herself.

Until the last couple of years, nearly every horse Crawford won on, whether rodeoing or showing, was one she’d trained. Having a hand in their development from the beginning has always been part of what makes the sport rewarding for her.

“To me, that is the reward of it,” Crawford said. “I love it. That is a huge part to me, is that I know what those horses did from day one.”

Getting to rope on a mare she’s done the work on against a tough set of horses and trainers carries its own weight, regardless of the outcome.

“To see them come in here and her to be able to hang against my idols, I mean people that I’ve looked up to my entire roping career, and to be able to back on a horse that I trained from the start in the roping pen anyways and be able to score with those guys,” Crawford said. “To me, that’s my little internal win. It doesn’t even have to win the big money or any of that. That’s just my internal win, and that’s what kind of fills my cup.”