Before Charmayne James became one of the most decorated barrel racers in rodeo history, before the gold buckles, the record-setting career and the Hall of Fame honors, she was a kid in Clayton, New Mexico, hurrying home from school for the only thing she really wanted to do.
Ride.
There were no cell phones. No social media. Not even television.
Her entertainment was horseback, out on her father’s feedlot, riding through the wind, the cold, the snow and the wide-open country that shaped her into the horsewoman she would become.
“When I wasn’t in school, I was on a horse,” James said. “That’s all I did.”
That life was not polished or easy. It was cattle, chores, weather and work. James grew up riding with the cowboys, helping move cattle and learning early that horsemanship was not just something you practiced. It was something you lived.
“The elements weren’t always that great,” James said. “In the blizzards we’d have in the winter, no matter what, you had to work in them. I think the time riding, the work ethic, that probably couldn’t have happened in any other place than where I grew up.”
Before the legendary horse that would carry her far and wide, there was Creamer.
At 10 years old, James trained Creamer to run barrels and won her first All-Around Cowgirl title on him, along with a borrowed rope horse and her sister’s pole bending horse. He was not fast enough to take her where she wanted to go next, but he helped prove something important early: James could make a good one even better.
That work ethic carried James from Clayton to the National Finals Rodeo, where she and Gills Bay Boy, better known as Scamper, built one of the most iconic partnerships in Western sports history.
James and Scamper won 10 consecutive WPRA World Championships from 1984-93, with the horse her father had once found in the feedyard horse pens. Scamper had never seen a barrel when James first tried him, but the match was immediate. He was tough, opinionated and all business.
“He was definitely the alpha horse,” James said. “Every horse on the place respected him. Whether he went after them or not, there was just maybe an unspoken language that they knew he was the top guy.”
He was also, in James’ words, in a league of his own.
The bond between them went far beyond competition. Scamper was her partner, her responsibility and, in many ways, her family. While others saw the titles, James knew the day-to-day work it took to keep him sound, sharp and confident for more than a decade.
If Scamper could tell James’ story, she believes he would start there.
“He would probably say that I took great care of him,” James said. “I was always with him. He would probably say that I was the perfect match for him, because I was probably just about as crazy as him and wild. We were both just pedal to the metal all the time.”
That same pedal-to-the-metal attitude helped carry James through the harder parts of rodeo life.
There were missed holidays, missed milestones and long hauls in trucks that were not built for the kind of miles rodeo demanded. She remembers missing family Thanksgivings because she was home taking care of Scamper. She remembers not going to prom because she was likely headed to a rodeo somewhere.
She does not remember it with regret.
“I wouldn’t change a thing,” James said. “I don’t feel like I missed anything. I think I gained more value and knowledge doing what I was doing at that time.”
Still, the road had a way of testing everyone.
Long before modern diesel trucks and comfortable living-quarter trailers, James and her mother were hauling through the mountains in gas trucks, pushing rigs through snowstorms, breakdowns and long nights between rodeos.
One trip still stands out. James and her mother were coming home from Billings, Montana, driving through a New Mexico blizzard. They pulled into the driveway around 4 a.m., grateful just to be home. Later, when they went outside to check the barn, they found the truck’s driveline had fallen out right there in the driveway.
They had made it all the way home before the rig finally gave out.
“I feel like God was with us every step of the way,” James said. “How does that happen?”
That faith, toughness and optimism became part of James’ identity. She describes herself as a “glass full” kind of person, someone who did not wait around for help or let little things stop her.
“When things happened, I just worked through them,” James said. “Whatever happened, you just dealt with it and went on. You just learn to go do things on your own and get it done.”
That confidence was there early. When James was a teenager and her father asked if she was going to try to make the NFR, she did not hesitate.
She was not going to make it.
She was going to win it.
James did exactly that, again and again and again.
Yet, for all the history she made with Scamper, one of the defining moments of her career came when she proved she could do it again with another horse. After retiring Scamper, James continued to qualify for the NFR on different horses and eventually won her 11th WPRA World Championship in 2002 aboard Cruiser.
For James, that title meant something different.
The 10th world title with Scamper was emotional because it allowed her to retire the horse that had given her everything. The 11th title with Cruiser quieted the people who had said her success was only because of Scamper.
“Going out and winning that 11th world title on another horse that I trained, that was important to put all those naysayers to rest,” James said.
Consider the naysayers turned and burned.
Now, James is in a different chapter.
She lives in Boerne, Texas, where she still rides, still enjoys her horses and still finds purpose in teaching. She has two horses, Q and Victor, and her older son, Tyler, rides Victor when he comes home. Her sons, Tyler and Austin, did not follow her into rodeo. Instead, they found baseball.
James never pushed them toward the arena. She wanted them to pursue what they loved.
Both boys eventually found their own arena in baseball, and James was happy to let them chase it. She has traveled with them, supported them and learned the game along the way, though she is quick to admit she still does not pretend to coach the mechanics. Her advice is simpler, and probably a little more familiar coming from an 11-time world champion: “Things are hard, and you got to figure it out.”
In some ways, she sees horses and athletes the same way. Some need more repetitions. Some need more patience. Some need a different kind of management.
That philosophy now drives her work as a clinician and mentor. James teaches riders around the world, focusing not only on barrel racing fundamentals, but on horsemanship, discipline, mental attitude and care for the animal.
She wants riders to understand that horses are not tools.
They are partners.
“I hope people see me as someone who was able to win at a high level and still love and treat their horses like they’re their family,” James said. “They’re your partner. That’s what I remember about me — that I was smart about it, and I was kind.”
That legacy now adds another honor.
James is one of two distinctive athletes being honored with the Ty Murray Top Hand Award, created in 2018 and presented annually to individuals who have made significant and lasting contributions to enhance the sport of rodeo.
For James, the award recognizes more than championships. It honors a life that began on the feedlot in New Mexico, stretched across 19 consecutive NFR qualifications, 11 world titles and a partnership with a horse who became a legend, and continues today through the riders she teaches.
Her goals now are rooted in that same purpose. She wants to keep getting better as a teacher. She hopes to put out another training book or series. She wants her knowledge to keep helping the next generation understand not only how to run barrels, but how to care for the horses that make it possible.
“To go out and be able to help people ride their horses better, get along with them, give them motivation, give them actual skill that they can use — it’s just an absolute gift,” James said. “When you get on your horse, it’s like the world just is better all of a sudden.”
For Charmayne James, that feeling started in Clayton.
It carried her to the top of the rodeo world.
And all these years later, it is still the reason she rides.
Photo courtesy of Bull Stock Media