Category: Rodeo LIFE Cover Feature

Rylee Jo Maryman spends her summer days roping the dummy and tying goats. Sometimes she goes swimming, but practice comes first. “I practice to increase how I run when I’m at a rodeo. That’s my favorite sport,” said the 9-year-old National Little Britches World All Around Champion Little Wrangler. She also holds the World Champion title in the Pole Bending, and Flag Racing. Her favorite event is pole bending. “I have an awesome horse and he always does what I ask him – I think I’m very athletic in that event and it’s very challenging and I like challenges. It makes me work harder and improve.”

 

Rylee Jo knows how hard it is to win, and she feels like she’s got the horse to do it. “If I didn’t have Pistol, I don’t think I would have won so much.” Pistol is a 21-year-old gelding. “You can do anything on him – I use him for poles, barrels, and flags.” Pistol used to be her uncle’s team roping horse and won the Purina Super Horse this year. “He is not the fastest, and he’s not a bucking horse, but if I’m having problems in anything, I go back to him to help me fix it.” She also rides Dally. “She’s fast, but not as fast as my new horse, Smurf. Smurf runs really fast and I’m trying to get him back in my hands.”
She has been in the NLBRA for three years. “I didn’t place at all my first year, and then I got a little better last year and I finally won the world this year. It feels good. I competed against a lot of good kids and good horses,” said the St. Francisville, Louisiana, native. She lives ten minutes out of town with her mother, Casey, and father, Joe and their 10 horses, four dogs, 18 goats, five cats, 6 chickens, and cattle.
She spends her summers at her grandmother’s house while her parents work, but as soon as they get home; it’s off to the arena. “It hasn’t been dry enough lately to do anything, but I still rope the dummy and tie goats under the barn.”

Her mom and dad help her the most with her rodeo. “Now we rodeo for her,” said her mom, Casey. “At about 2 ½ we put her on a horse and we turned her loose by herself. She had it – squeezing with her legs and riding on her own. Since then, she’s ridden every day. Her focus 24/7 is the arena. We go every day. We competed in two different associations last year since it was her last year in Little Wranglers. She went into the finals winning the barrels and poles and in the top four of all the rest – goat tail untying and flag racing.” Casey, who works during the day as an educator in the prison, started rodeoing when she was young. “We didn’t go as hard as she does when we were young.” She roped – team rope and breakaway. Her husband, Joe, who is a biologist for the Wildlife Fisheries in Louisiana, college rodeoed, calf roped and team roped. “We’re going to do whatever we can to give her what she needs. Right now she has two new horses she’s trying to get with.”

 

Rylee Jo has also gone to three of Martha Josey’s clinics as well as Stacy Martin with Next Level Goat Tying. “When I first went to the goat tying school I was tying in 18, now I’m tying in 11s,” she said. The Josey clinics have helped her figure out the first barrel. “I’m still trying to figure that out. When I pull, I give back. When I do that, my horse runs by. I’m still working on that.” What the clinics have done for this young lady is give her confidence to figure out how to fix her problems in the arena. “I can try to figure it out on my own from going to the schools.” The other thing she is figuring out is how to manage her own money. She has a bank account and she pays for part of her entry fees.

When she grows up, she wants to rodeo full time. That’s what she’s doing now – she’s rodeoeing all weekend and if she’s not, she’s in the arena at home practicing.”

“Keep your dreams and one day they will come true. But you have to work on them or they won’t come true.”
Her rodeo idol is Mary Burger. “She always tries to do better.”

 

Roscoe Jarboe is “the Rock.” Or at least, that’s what his dad used to call him. When the number five bull rider in the PRCA’s world standings was a little boy, his favorite WWE wrestler was the Rock. His dad would walk through the house, asking if anybody could smell what the Rock was cookin’. And he’s cooked himself up a great start to a rodeo career.

The New Plymouth, Idaho bull rider won the 2016 Resistol Rookie of the Year award, plus qualified for his first Wrangler NFR last year.
He’s been preparing to ride bulls since he was a kid, traveling with his dad, Bo Jarboe, as Bo rode bulls in the Columbia Circuit.

 

“He cut his teeth (on bull riding) when he was a baby,” Bo said. “I used to load him up in the pickup when I went to rodeos, and it’d be just me and him. Well before he knew what was going on, he was at rodeos.”

 

Bo rode bulls till about 2000, when Roscoe was four years old, and then he and his then-wife Miss (short for Melissa) built an arena and bucking chutes on his place outside of New Plymouth. They made sure their son had whatever he needed: first calves, then steers, mini-bulls, and bulls.

At New Plymouth High School, Roscoe was in FFA and 4-H and showed pigs. He wrestled and rodeoed, competing in the Idaho High School Rodeo Association his freshman year, and then in the Oregon High School Association his sophomore and junior years. He finished as reserve state champion bull rider in 2012 and 2013, his sophomore and junior years, winning the average his junior year and finishing eleventh in the nation at the National High School Finals Rodeo in 2013.

His senior year Roscoe went pro, getting his PRCA permit that year. He turned 18 in April of 2014, but chose to spend two years as a permit holder before he got his card and entered his rookie year. “I wanted to get the experience, to figure out the rough patches, what rodeos to go to, and what rodeos not to go to,” he said.
For him, rodeo is not just the eight seconds on a bull. The sport is ninety percent mental, Jarboe believes. “Most of us are in good shape to ride bulls, and we work out, but mainly we’re working on our minds.” Riding bulls is like riding a bike; a person doesn’t forget how to, Jarboe said, but staying confident is important. “We just have to keep our minds positive; it’s a mind game. We read books (about mental psychology), and all we have to do is stay positive.”

His traveling partners help. He travels with Dallee Mason, Brady Portenier, and Chase Robbins, and the four keep each other going. “It’s cool because we’re all really good friends, and say we get bucked off,” said Portenier, who is from Caldwell, Idaho. “We don’t talk about it till we get in the car, then we have our words, and everybody has their own opinions, and we usually get something productive out of our conversations. There’s no negativity in the car.”

Roscoe and Brady have known each other since they were kids; their dads rodeoed together, and Brady remembers going to the practice pen with Roscoe. “We picked up horn tips, and thought we were cool,” he said.

This year has been Roscoe’s best year of rodeo. As of press time, he was ranked fifth in the world standings and had $87, 455 won. After competing at his first WNFR and finishing his first year of pro rodeo, his maturity and confidence shows. “I’m just having fun this year,” he said.

 

Part of that fun is being more relaxed on the road. With his paycheck from the WNFR, he bought a motorhome. He and his buddies are “taking it easy this year, and having fun with what we do.” They sightsee when they have time, taking in Mt. Rushmore and other places, and they bowl and golf. “We’re being kids,” he said. Golfing is big for him and his buddies. “We golf all the time. That’s like another job for me. It’s so relaxing to just get out there and hit some balls.”

His biggest win this year was at the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo, where he won the finals on D&H Cattle Company’s Sweet Pro Bruiser, scoring 91 on the bull. It was a bull he would love to get on again. “He’d be good to get on any time. You don’t want to miss the opportunity to get on that bull.”

Last year, Roscoe’s biggest win was Cheyenne Frontier Days, when he covered all three of his bulls, won the second round, finished fourth in the finals, and won the average with 246 points on three head.

Jarboe didn’t let nerves get to him at his first WNFR, even though it was everything and more than he expected. “Everybody tells you it’s just another rodeo,” he said. “When you get there, it’s a lot bigger than that. But once you get behind the bucking chutes, you can’t see the crowd and the lights aren’t too bright, and it’s just another rodeo. You focus on riding your bull.” He covered his first two bulls, but regretted not riding more. When the WNFR was over, he wished there were more bulls to ride. “I could have gone a couple more rounds, but that’s because I was disappointed in how I finished.”

He has several nice buckles, including one from his Cheyenne Frontier Days win in 2016 and one from round two of the WNFR, but he wears a buckle he won in 2011 showing pigs at the Payette County Fair. He was grand champion two years in a row, and loved showing pigs. “It was a good experience because you had to raise an animal and treat them as you want to be treated. Pigs have a personality of their own. They’re probably one of my favorite animals.” He doesn’t wear his good buckles, not wanting to scratch them.

Roscoe’s younger sister, Harli Jo, is the pig showing expert in the family. She’s won grand champion several years in a row. The 16-year-old is graduating from high school a year early to move on to college. “My kids achieve what they set out to do,” Miss said. “They work very hard for their goals. The best thing is they are very humble about it.”

 

Roscoe has his own style of bull riding. “Everyone likes to talk about how he’s got some crazy wild style,” Portenier said, “but when you break it down, he does the basics better than a lot of guys, and does them well. When he gets into those wild positions, he’s able to fall back to the basics, and go to home base, and doggone ride them.”

His buddies have named it “the noodle.” “He noodles them,” Portenier said. “He can get into a really bad position, to where most guys would quit or plain not have the ability to get back in the middle. But Roscoe seems to do it more than not. Everybody has that one time when they’re hanging off to the side and can wiggle back, but I’ve seen Roscoe do that quite a bit.”

His dad Bo, and his mom, Miss, divorced when he was 16. His dad travels for his job, and if the rodeo is close, will drive seven or eight hours to watch him ride. Roscoe’s style of riding isn’t like his dad’s. “He’s got his own style,” Bo said. “It’s a really strange style that works for him. I wish he would change it up just a little bit so his body lasts for a while. But the more time goes, he may change it up.”

He and fellow bull rider Garrett Tribbles were neck and neck for the Resistol Rookie race all year. Both qualified for the Wrangler National Finals, but Roscoe edged out Garrett at the end of the season by over $20,000. Robbins, Roscoe’s traveling partner, finished third in the Resistol race.

He’s ready for this year’s Wrangler NFR. Last year didn’t go as he wanted. “I started getting down on myself, and that’s the worst place to do it, at the (National) Finals.” This year he’ll know what to expect. “It’s still nerve-wracking when you get there, but I’ll feel like I’ve been there and done that.”

Roscoe has qualified for and competed at the Columbia River Circuit Finals twice and competed at the PBRs early in his career.
He’s ready to repeat what he did last year, when he was on a roll. “It’s hard not to win when you can’t fall off. There are ups and downs (in bull riding), but when you get one rode, you just roll with it, and let it happen till it starts not happening anymore.
“I try to keep my head focused and do what I’m supposed to do.”

 

“Of course I’ll talk to ya, I’m so honest you can shoot dice with me over the phone!” Dale Brisby is not afraid to wear his name on his hat. “I am the best there is, was, or ever will be! I’ve been to the winning circle so many times, it’d make a normal man dizzy!” boasts the Texas bull rider. His rodeo career began early. “Rodeo has been my life, I’ve been goin 90 since before the war!” He started riding sheep, then graduated to steers and bulls, and went on to college rodeo. Where he obtained an undergraduate and a graduate degree in – ag leadership and education. “I done been 90 in the rodeo arena and the classroom ol’ son!”

 

“I have a really good time rodeoing and I like to live that life through social media. I am grateful every day that anyone might find what I do entertaining enough to give me a second look. I thank God everyday that He blessed me with a path to salvation through His son, with living in this country, for making me a cowboy, and for making me the most humble bull riding legend ever to walk the earth. If there’s a better life, I don’t know it.”

“Whenever I get together with my camara man, Randy Quartieri, and Leroy Gibbons, we’re like a bunch of little kids giggling and building a tree house. It’s just fun. And that’s how life should be! Especially if you’re a cowboy, and especially if you’re a Christian. I want to live my life through social media in a way that people see that.”

“The Lord put me on this earth to spend time in the rodeo arena. I’ve competed and mastered all three rough stock events professionally and I have also fought bulls professionally. It was shortly after college rodeo that I decided to pursue one event and only enter the bull riding. As many goals as I have set and accomplished, it’s getting a bit mundane. So I am always looking for new horizons!”

 

He has mastered social media – his videos have been seen by millions. “I was always considered the class clown, but I think that was only because I was different than everyone else. I didn’t conform my personality to the status quo then, and I still don’t today. How many other people do you see walk into Cowboy Christmas in Las Vegas with mud boots, holes in their jeans, only a vest on, and their only concern is that everyone know it is ‘Rodeo Time’.”

 

He has brought his concept not only to social media, but to the retail market and motivational speaking engagements. He lives his ministry through focusing on his faith. “My business plan is prayer. I have some goals, but mainly, I want to please the Lord. That comes first. If that remains my priority then I will be at peace with whatever the outcome is.”

“I believe social media is merely a tool. A very powerful one that can be used for good or bad. For me, it is where I can hopefully give someone a break in their stressful day and make them laugh. Everyone of my videos may not quote scripture, but hopefully they can see Christ’s love through the way I live my life. Thank you to anyone who follows or subscribes to my shenanigans, you are why I do what I do. Hit me up in the DM’s!”

He partnered up with Fallon Taylor to create a series of videos poking fun at the barrel racing world. “We give barrel racers an inside look at bull riders and she gives bull riders and inside look at barrel racing. We do Snapchat takeovers where we run each others’ Snapchat.”

 

He has produced more than 100 videos and his goals for the future include more retail adventures. “I’d love to be the one spot people go for all things rodeo and obviously continue to rodeo.”

 

“No matter where you go or what you’re doing, it’s not going to be easy to win first place,” says Myles Neighbors. The 18-year-old from Benton, Arkansas, has won numerous titles, including 2016 NLBRA World Champion Steer Wrestler, but he also knows the feeling of leaving empty-handed. Yet Myles’ approach to his favorite sport is always the same. “Whenever I’m not going to a rodeo, I’m at home practicing. I think about rodeo all the time. Whether it’s calf roping or steer wrestling or team roping, I’m thinking about a way I can make that run better.”

While Myles has gold buckle dreams now, he didn’t used to be so passionate about rodeo. “Myles was four or five when he started in the Southern Junior Rodeo Association. When he started, I didn’t think he’d have a competitive bone in his body,” says his mom, Sheila Neighbors. “I had to chase him down and throw him on his horse to do his events – he’d be under the bleachers playing or in someone’s trailer. I don’t remember when he turned competitive, but one year we were rodeoing and it just clicked.”

Rodeo started in the Neighbors family with Myles’ grandpa and great-uncle, James and Philip Neighbors. His grandpa James competed in tie-down roping and steer wrestling and his uncle, Philip, competed in steer wrestling. Both qualified for the IFR. His grandfather, James, served as president of the IPRA and worked as a stock contractor, producing ARA, CRRA, IPRA and PRCA rodeos. James passed away several years ago, but not before seeing his grandson compete. Myles’ dad, Howard Neighbors, carried on the tradition of steer wrestling. He runs his own plumbing business, and currently competes in team roping, entering ARA rodeos with Myles, who was the youngest contestant ever to win the all-around title in the ARA at age 16. He’s also won ARA rookie of the year titles in heading, steer wrestling, and tie-down roping, and currently competes in the ARA, ACA, CRRA, AHSRA, and NLBRA.

“I love the people in Little Britches,” says Myles, who won the 2014 NLBRA Rookie of the Year. “They are one of the nicest families in the rodeo world, and you don’t meet people like that everywhere you go. They always want to help you with something, and if there’s not one, there’s twenty people anytime you need something.” Sheila adds, “I loved every bit of the finals at the Lazy E. We stay at a friend’s house for the Little Britches finals and turn our horses out since Little Britches and the IFYR and NHSFR put us on the road for three weeks. We’re going into those three rodeos with a bit of a handicap this year – Myles’ good rope horse blinded himself in one eye a few weeks ago and his steer wrestling horse has been under the weather. He competed on friends’ horses at high school state finals and went in with the possibility to win four titles. He came out with one of those, the All Around, and that’s OK. God has a plan.”

As for the setbacks with his horses, the rodeo family readily came to his aid, and Myles was still able to qualify for the NHSFR in all three of his events. He’s been riding Jason Thomas’ steer wrestling horse, and his family’s horse trainer and close friend, Weldon Moore, sent Myles to state finals on his calf horse. “They were generous enough to let me borrow their horses so I could get it done. When I got to know Weldon, I stayed with him and worked on my roping, and now he and his wife are like my grandparents. Jason Thomas letting me ride his bull dogging horse was a big step for me, and his parents, Jim and Leann Thomas, do a lot for me. I go over and use their arena all the time. My mom and dad do a whole lot for me – they pay for everything and they never miss a high school or Little Britches rodeo. I would also like to thank Keith and Diane Everett for all they have done for me through the years. I travel a lot with two of my best friends, Austin Wake and Benjamin Cox. We’ve grown up together and they’re really good at keeping me going. We all help and support each other.”

Last winter, Myles moved his horses, calves, and steers to Benjamin’s house and stayed there a couple of months to practice in his indoor arena. “My good calf horse, Cadillac, is one of the ones that got hurt,” says Myles. “I just went to catch him one day to go to a rodeo and his eye was solid white. His retina is partially detached, so he might have to have his eye taken out. My mom will probably run barrels on him, and I’ll get another horse. Frosty is Jason Thomas’s horse that I’ve been riding lately, and I’ve been bouncing around on heel horses.”

 

Myles was still able to qualify for the NHSFR in all three of his events, including the team roping with header Jacob Scroggins. They have roped together in both Little Britches and high school rodeos since Myles’ junior year when he switched from heading to heeling. “Myles is a natural born header,” says Sheila, who grew up showing horses and took up barrel racing in rodeos after marrying Howard. “Myles got his first rope horse when he was seven, and the second time he roped off that horse, he caught his steer.” But ultimately, steer wrestling is Myles’ favorite event. “I like everything about it – I like the speed and I like when I get off and the steer hits flat on his side.” He’d love to spend a day dogging steers with Luke Branquinho, and roping with Clay O’Brien Cooper. His latest branch on the rodeo trail starts this fall competing on the Northeast Texas Community College rodeo team. “I’m going on a full-ride rodeo scholarship, and I like the coach there a lot,” says Myles. “I’m going for an Ag. business degree, and I’m hoping I can better myself at the college rodeo level and keep my grades up.” He had plenty of practice studying on the road since he was homeschooled all four years of high school. The flexibility allowed him more opportunities to rodeo, including competing in the first ever Jr. Ironman Championship at the Lazy E Arena this March. Selected from the top five of the world standings in team roping, steer wrestling, and tie-down roping, Myles won the first round of the Jr. Ironman Championship. “ It sure was competitive, and I didn’t go out of there with an empty pocket!”

Myles occasionally trades his rope for a fishing pole and goes to one of the numerous lakes near his home, but rodeo always takes priority. He likes that his hometown of Benton, Arkansas, is centrally located to a number of rodeos, and plans to buy his PRCA permit and start pro rodeoing this year. “I’m always wanting to better myself, whether it’s with my horses or my rope,” he finishes. “Some kids like football and basketball, and I like rodeo. My whole life, I’ve always wanted a gold buckle with my name on it.”

“To rodeo is not just one or two people committing – it’s the whole family,” says Mike Winchell. He and his wife, Shawna, committed wholeheartedly the day their daughters, Shelby and Libby, now ages 25 and 18, stepped onto the rodeo trail. Since then, the sisters have won several state and national titles apiece. Shelby is the assistant rodeo coach at Sheridan College in Wyoming and Libby, who won the 2016 Champions Challenge in Omaha, Nebraska, will be a freshman this fall at Eastern Wyoming College. Yet all the roots lead back to home in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, and the foundation of hard work that Shelby and Libby built their careers on.

The rodeo tradition comes from both sides of the family, and Shawna’s dad, a steer wrestler named Dick Phillips, helped start the Chadron State College rodeo team in the 1960. Shawna also rodeoed on the college team after competing in Little Britches and high school rodeo, while Mike’s background is in ranching. They wanted their daughters to experience several different sports, including basketball and volleyball, but the rodeo spark is what took off.

 

Shelby started rodeoing when she was nine, and Libby occupied herself with stick horse barrel racing and pole bending, and helping carry goats to the arena for goat tying, until she was old enough to compete. Both she and Shelby showed in 4-H, where Shawna was a leader, and FFA. They also competed in the WJRA, NLBRA, and Nebraska junior high and high school. They entered the barrel racing, pole bending, goat tying, and breakaway roping, but they’ve especially excelled in goat tying. Their mom, Shawna, was also a goat tyer. “It’s an event that’s not all about the horse – you get out of it what you put into it,” she explains. “It also requires athletic ability for getting off a horse that’s going thirty miles an hour. We call competitiveness the family sickness, but we’re fortunate the girls are willing to work hard at being their best. Mike and I have always been involved, going to clinics and learning new techniques right alongside them so when we’re in the practice arena, we know how to help them.”

Through one such clinic, Shelby met goat tyer and Cochise College rodeo coach, Lynn Smith. “In high school, I had the opportunity to travel with Lynn Smith and help with goat tying clinics. It instilled that desire to teach – I’ve always wanted to be a rodeo coach so I could share that knowledge. Not many people can say they are twenty-five years old and living their dream job!”

Before Shelby started rodeoing, she’d already overcome incredible odds, having been born 16 weeks early and going through extensive physical therapy as she grew up, making her drive to rodeo and compete twice as strong. She qualified for the NJHFR in 2006 and the NHSFR from 2008 – 2010, and after graduating from Scottsbluff High School, she attended Eastern Wyoming College. Shelby later transferred to Chadron State College and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in education. She qualified for the CNFR in goat tying in 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2016, also competing in breakaway in 2013 after winning reserve all-around in the Central Rocky Mountain Region. She won the region in goat tying last year before clinching the national title at the CNFR. That same day, Libby won the goat tying at the Nebraska state finals, and she and Shawna watched the live feed of Shelby competing in the CNFR on their way home.

 

“It’s interesting, because I’m known more for my goat tying success, but I also trained barrel and breakaway horses and seasoned them at college rodeos and sold them,” says Shelby, who is also finishing her master’s degree in K-12 school counseling through CSC. She enters jackpots, and will compete in the NRCA this summer. She plans to start seasoning a four-year-old in the breakaway roping and goat tying this summer, while she’s also riding Ace, whom she purchased from CSC rodeo coach Dustin Luper. “I’m able to keep my horses at the school and work them every day, which is a special thing for me, because I can observe the students and their different methods of training. I’ve also taken in several outside horses.”

Many of Shelby’s winning goat runs have been off Hadley, a 20-year-old gelding she’s shared with Libby. He returned to Scottsbluff last fall in time for fall high school rodeos. “Hadley used to be a steer wrestling horse, and he has a good personality,” says Libby. “Blaze is my barrel horse, but he got turned into a goat horse two weeks before Nationals my sophomore year when Hadley got hurt.” Blaze, whom they purchased from Wanda Brown, was trained by professional barrel racer RaNelle O’Keeffe from North Dakota, and Libby’s rope horse, Chase, came from PRCA tie-down roper Chase Williams. “Our good friends Troy and Riley Pruitt helped us find Chase. We rope at the Pruitt’s house, and they’ve been great. I can’t thank the people who have helped me and my family out enough: our vet and chiropractor, the Pruitts, and Lari Dee Guy and Hope Thompson. And without my mom and dad, I wouldn’t be here for sure.”

Libby has qualified for the NHSFR the past three years, winning Reserve National Goat Tying Champion in 2015 and 2016, along with the state reserve all-around title last year. She competed in the NJHFR twice, and is a two-time Nebraska state goat tying champion. For her senior year, she decided to rodeo with the WHSRA, and she’s currently leading the goat tying, seventh in the breakaway roping, 17th in barrels and third in All Around. “I like all my events equally,” Libby says. “Shelby has had a lot of success in the goat tying, and we’ve had lots of people help with that. We work hard at it – we’re in the arena every night like everyone else, roping after school and riding horses.”

Libby frequently sports a 100X Helmet when she steps into the saddle, a decision she made after taking a tumble at a rodeo her seventh grade year, causing her optic nerve to swell. “If I take another fall, I could permanently lose my vision, so I’m going to wear a helmet so I can do what I love.” In sixth grade, Libby spent two weeks in a children’s hospital with a perforated ulcer and optic neuritis. She’d had pain in her left side for three months before it was diagnosed, and her vision, which was 20/400 near and far at that time, has since improved. “I wear glasses to read and drive, and I still have headaches, but I’m learning to manage them,” says Libby.

“When Libby was at a Mayo clinic, her doctor was helping her with exercises for her headaches, and he suggested those same things for athletes in breathing and visualization,” says Mike, who played high school sports. Shawna adds, “Mike’s dad was an excellent basketball coach, and looking into rodeo from the outside perspective, Mike has instilled in the girls the usefulness of reading books and that mental game.” Mind Gym by Gary Mack was a favorite of Shelby’s, while Libby has found inspiration in books by golfers discussing the mental aspects of the game. “I have a saying that a champion is a champion that acts like one,” says Mike. “The girls do the work and have the work ethic, but it’s not a one-time deal. They’ve both barely missed national championships, and that just makes them want to come back. I think a lot of their success has come from learning about where we’re going before we get there. They’ll YouTube the arenas or use Google Earth so there are no big surprises. When they don’t have to worry about the little things, the bigger things come faster. Part of the reason Libby wanted to stay in the Central Rocky Mountain Region is because she’s competed in a lot of those same college arenas in the WHSRA, and that will help her collegiate career as a freshman.”

Along with helping their own two athletes, Shawna and Mike are passionate about bringing the best goats possible to junior high, high school, and college rodeos. They also contract goats for jackpots, and state and county fairs. “Our girls were running through so many goats at practice that we’ve always had an influx of practice stock,” says Mike. “There’s nothing I hate more than an animal making the winning decision in a rodeo and not the athlete. We work hard at providing the best stock possible.” Last year, the Winchells had more than 90 goats, and they do much of the hauling themselves for high school and college rodeos.

Shelby comes home periodically to trade out goats for her rodeo team, and she loves the camaraderie of her team. “At roughstock practice, we have the timed event athletes sorting stock and opening chutes, and the same with the roughies at timed event practice,” she says. “We have a fairly young team this year, but we had some phenomenal girls return to rodeo with us. It’s spectacular to see that improvement of self, and to see the student athletes improve not only in the rodeo arena, but in life.

“I’d love to continue being a rodeo coach, and continue training horses as long as I’m able. I have the lifelong goal to make it to the WNFR, and I’d like to start roping in the WPRA and train a horse that’s up to par for that avenue.”
Following graduation from Scottsbluff High School, Libby’s goal is to win state in goat tying and also go to Nationals in breakaway roping. “I’d love to win Nationals – I know what it’s like to get there, but I just need that extra step. I plan on getting a degree in sports medicine and college rodeoing all four years, and hopefully get my master’s and rodeoing a fifth year before going pro.”

 

“There’s not a sibling rivalry, but Shelby and Libby each want to walk their own road,” Shawna and Mike conclude. “We’ve met a lot of good people all over the United States. Kids that Libby and Shelby high school and Little Britches rodeoed with are competing together on the collegiate level, and so many people have helped us and we’ve enjoyed helping others. We don’t think there’s another sport in the world that has that.”

Hailey Kinsel’s qualification for RFD-TV’s The American and subsequent win in the barrel racing  – and a third of a million dollars – has put the 22 year old from Cotulla, Texas, on the largest stage of her life. “I don’t know if there’s a bigger stage than that besides the WNFR,” she says. “It’s not just the money – the atmosphere there is insane, and pressure wise, I like the excitement and the challenge. The crowd makes you feel happy to be there, and when I’m happy to be there, I compete at my best.”

Competing in the NHSFR, IFYR, PRCA, and CNFR prepared Hailey for the most famous run of her career thus far. But it was the support of her family, a resolute work ethic, and three horses in particular who helped her get there. Her parents, Dan and Leslie Kinsel, both rodeoed in high school and college – Leslie representing the Lone Star State as Miss Rodeo Texas in 1980 – and Hailey was rodeoing by the time she was four. “We ranch and run cattle in South Texas, and my brother and I had to learn to ride so we could work cattle. We don’t have an arena, but when I wanted to work barrel horses starting in junior high, we plowed up an area in the middle of the pasture. We’re really blessed with awesome red dirt – it’s maybe every six months that we have to disc it,” says Hailey. “Both my parents taught me how to work with what I had, and that made me more of a competitor and trainer when I could make the best of every situation. Both my grandmothers were paramount in my early years, being supportive and telling me I could do it.”

Hailey, who was homeschooled starting in seventh grade, rodeoed in THSRA Region 8 in all the girls events, while also showing steers and goats in 4-H and serving as a FFA and 4-H officer at the local and district level. Her older brother, Matt, rodeoed through junior high. “He’s very athletic and he’s had his own website design company since he was thirteen. He does all the IT work for the family business and he’s an entrepreneur in College Station. He’s probably the most supportive business man – he’ll show up at rodeos in a suit to watch me run.” Hailey was the THSRA state president, and won the state barrel racing title in 2011, returning to the NHSFR in 2013 in breakaway. But barrels are a longstanding favorite. “It’s the event I’ve done the longest, and the one my mom and I have most in common. I had good, trustworthy horses that made it fun for me. We weren’t winning, but I was going slow enough to learn to ride well, and I never had a bad experience. In junior high, my mom and I bought my first competitive horse together, Josey. She was a project, and she became my all-time favorite. Having that one good horse made me fall in love with barrel racing, and makes me look for good in other horses.”

DM Sissy Hayday, or Sister, carried Hailey to The American, but it was the mare’s half sister, Baja, who made the win possible. “Baja was running fast everywhere and coming on this year, but during everything with The American, she came up lame, and a week after The American, we lost her to melanoma. She served her purpose, because we wouldn’t have bought Sister without her.” The Kinsels bought Baja on Craiglist as a two-year-old and loved her so much they called the breeder, learning he had just one left – Sister – and was selling the broodmare. “We took a chance on Sister. She was a funny looking two-year-old, but she was pretty solid-minded and a good turner,” says Hailey. “Sister started showing some fire when she was three or four and she bucked for the first time. She was so strong willed that I kept her slow and focused for a long time and entered her in her first futurity the end of her four-year-old year. She broke pattern and ran off, but I worked her and she did awesome in the second round. Since then, she’s been running in the 1D, and when Sister wants to do something, she is going to do it.”
Hailey and Sister’s next national appearance is the CNFR, where Hailey has competed twice before in the barrel racing. Texas A&M University’s women’s team won reserve in the Southern Region, and Hailey graduated in May with a degree in agricultural economics. She’s also two classes away from her real estate license. “Training futurity horses is my ultimate goal, but I’m glad to have my degree as backup. Here at school, we have two Bible study groups that I lead – one for the college girls on the rodeo team, and one with some freshman high school girls before school in the morning,” Hailey adds. “I play the guitar and keyboard a little bit, and I always sang in church growing up. My faith is the reason I do rodeo. I have my relationship with the Lord, and he allows me to rodeo. Rodeo has led me so many places, and I know my purpose is to share the good news of the Lord and connect with people.”

One of her favorite connections is with the Elizabeth Stampede, where last summer, Hailey won both her first rodeo on Sister and her first PRCA rodeo. “I’d seen it on the WPRA Today show, and I know girls that talked about the great ground. I went to it on the way to the college finals, and I had a blast! Their pancakes were amazing too, and some of the committee came out to Denver when I competed there this winter. It was so nice that they cared and stayed in touch.” Another favorite destination was the IFYR during high school, where Hailey finished third in the average in barrels her junior year, and the top 15 in the average in barrels and poles her senior year. “I always wanted to enter because I heard so much about it from my friends, and I loved the payout for a youth rodeo, as well as seeing my friends.”
When she’s not traveling – passing time on the road listening to music, sermons, or motivational speeches – Hailey works on her family’s ranch and trains horses with her mom. “We’re mostly focused on whatever horses we need for the two of us. We start with a two-year-old each year, and we’ve gotten into some breeding. Now that I’m done with college, I’m really looking forward to taking in outside horses and having more in training at one time,” says Hailey. “I’m going to the rest of the PRCA circuit rodeos in May and I’ll see how much I get done. I’m planning on riding my two main horses and hauling some three-year-olds to give experience. If we’re doing well, we’ll go hard this summer and go as far as we can!”