Hailey Kinsel, World Champion Barrel Racer (2024)

Kinsel's Whirlwind to Fame

A Year To Remember

We all know this year has had its challenges, and no one knows that better than the professional rodeo athletes. Most rodeos throughout the spring and summer were canceled, causing these athletes who typically make their living on the rodeo trail to figure out how to make ends-meet elsewhere. Some opened up new catering businesses, selling food out of their horse trailers, while others, like Kinsel, drove longer hours to remote locations where the rodeos were still allowed to carry on. These events were generally only one go-round long, meaning contestants would have less chances to win a portion of the pay-out. For barrel racers in particular, the timing of when they drew up would have a huge impact on the time they clocked. Just imagine, when we are talking hundredths of a second, how much longer it takes to run through the mud versus dry and dusty dirt. For barrel racers, it’s the ultimate “luck of the draw,” and it has been the theme for 2020 as ground conditions were literally changing overnight. With hundreds of barrel racers itching to run, these remote rodeos with uneven ground conditions saw a record number of contestants entering this year, and the competition was fiercer than ever before.

Kinsel and Sister have been rolling with the punches and adapting to the surroundings that 2020 has brought with it. This has never been more evident than after their record-setting run at the Dodge City Roundup Rodeo in Kansas. Kinsel started off the morning in Dodge City running in slack, vying to make it back as one of the top 10 fastest times for the evening performance. By this point in the year, this duo is usually at the top of their game, running every few days for the past three months. However, this is 2020 and circ*mstances saw them both feeling a little rusty with very few rodeos under their belt. The morning didn’t go as planned. Sister was feeling strong and the team went by the first barrel, clocking a 17.43 on a standard pattern. For the average barrel racer, this would be a good time and was still solid enough for ninth place that morning with a shot at the evening performance. For Kinsel and Sister, the time was disappointing and left Kinsel questioning whether or not to run Sister in the performance that evening. She had done the math and knew that if she wanted to make it back to the short go, she was going to have to run a 16-second time, which would be about half a second faster than her run that morning and a blistering fast time by any barrel racer’s standards. She knew Sister could do it, but what she didn’t know was if that night was going to be the night, especially since she had drawn bottom of the ground as the last one out.

After the slack was over and Kinsel was still undecided on her mount that night, she saddled up Sister again and went back into the arena for a tune up. Together, they walked back and forth to the stake (where the first barrel was marked) for over an hour. Kinsel explains, “Sister is a horse of repetition. Sometimes she just needs to be reminded to slow down a little bit.” After that, Kinsel was feeling more confident in Sister’s demeanor and even told her mom, “I have a good feeling about tonight.” She explains the choice she had as, “When you don’t do good, you are in a hole. You can either sit in your hole and keep digging around or you can fill it in, stand on it and go on. I decided to fill in my hole, and I just had a good feeling.”

A good feeling it was. Kinsel held true to her positive mindset of being lightning fast and perfect all in the same run. “When I came out of the arena, I couldn’t see my time, but I could hear the crowd cheering, so I was hoping I was a 16,” she remembers. “I really didn’t know for sure and then I finally heard my time and I was in shock.” Kinsel and Sister stopped the clock that night to be a 16.63 to not only win the round and break the record of the fastest time on a standard pattern at a WPRA rodeo but to also live up to the tagline for the Dodge City Roundup Rodeo of “The Greatest Show on Dirt.” Kinsel jokes, “The third time really is the charm” after saddling up her beloved mare three times that day to get their chemistry and game plan just right.

The win at Dodge City started a five-week winning streak for the duo. They went on to break the arena record at the Lawton Rangers Rodeo in Oklahoma with a blazing 16.90 and then placed at least fourth at every rodeo they ran at for five weeks straight. Kinsel explains, “It finally felt like we were rodeoing again.” She and Sister were so thankful to be back out on the road doing what they love and to be able to win was just icing on the cake.

“When you don’t do good, you are in a hole. You can either sit in your hole and keep digging around or you can fill it in, stand on it and go on. I decided to fill in my hole, and I just had a good feeling.”

Hailey Kinsel

The World Champion Barrel Racer said of her 16.63-second finish to not only win the round and break the record of the fastest time on a standard pattern at a WPRA rodeo but to also live up to the tagline for the Dodge City Roundup Rodeo of “The Greatest Show on Dirt.”

Hailey Kinsel, World Champion Barrel Racer (2024)

Kinsel's Whirlwind to Fame

A Year To Remember

“When you don’t do good, you are in a hole. You can either sit in your hole and keep digging around or you can fill it in, stand on it and go on. I decided to fill in my hole, and I just had a good feeling.”

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