KINSEL Hailey
Hailey Kinsel joined the WPRA in 2015 and finished nineteenth
in the rookie standings. A year later, she had won 11,710 dollars
and was just outside the top one hundred in the world
standings. Then, she qualified for RFD-TV’s The American in
March 2016 where she was one of three contestants to split a
one-million-dollar side pot.
Both of Hailey’s parents, Dan and Leslie, competed in high
school and college rodeo. Now, they along with her brother
Matt will be on the sidelines cheering on Hailey. The faithful
family will likely be saying lots of prayers along with the fans
that Hailey has amassed this year.
Hailey was homeschooled starting in seventh grade and
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.
Hailey Kinsel seemingly came out of nowhere to take the rodeo
world by storm in 2017. The truth is, the Cotulla, Texas, barrel
racer has been preparing for success in the arena all her life.
Hailey has always had a competitive spirit and she fueled that
with gymnastics and barrel racing as a youngster. While
gymnastics taught her a lot and she was successful, that wasn’t
her passion. When she was eleven years old, she focused solely
on barrel racing. After her gold medal win at the Days of 47
Cowboy Games and Rodeo in 2017, Hailey was ranked seventh
in the world and she entered her first Wrangler National Finals
Rodeo with 98,707 dollars in earnings. She had been in several
pressure-packed situations that year, all great practice for the
Thomas and Mack Center.
Success is continuing in 2018 for Kinsel. She and her mare,
Sister, won the San Antonio Stock Show Rodeo, just one
hundred miles from their home, a rodeo that Hailey had
attended as a child and dreamt of competing at. And, they set
another arena record along the way with a 13.60-second run.
The previous record was 13.67 set by Sydni Blanchard in 2013.
San Antonio was good to the dynamic duo to the tune of over
25,000 dollars, special for both of them as they had a lot of fans
in the building and Sister seems to respond to the crowd. The
first of March saw her second in the world standings and she is
a likely candidate for another trip to Las Vegas.
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.
Photo courtesy of PRCA Rodeo LIFE 115