Hailey competing at the IFYR- RodeoBum
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!”
