10/17/2025
What do I love most about the sport of Rodeo?
1. 𝐑𝐎𝐃𝐄𝐎 𝐅𝐀𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐘
2. The 𝐆𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 the pro rodeo athletes and others provide for the upcoming rodeo generations and to growing the sport.
3. The positive 𝐈𝐍𝐅𝐋𝐔𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄 pro rodeo athletes have on the youth and the ability to show them anything can happen with hard work.
There is no other sport that allows you direct access to pro athletes within that sport quite like rodeo.
Hailey Kinsel is the 𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐓𝐎𝐌𝐄 of all the above. Hailey and all of her amazing sponsors, family, and volunteers put on one HECK of a barrel race for the second year in a row. IT JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER!
The Hailey Kinsel Youth Barrel Race presented by YETI and her other supportive sponsors Wrangler Western, Classic Equine, Signature Equine Hospital, Bloomer Trailers, Fat Pony Productions, Brother Hayday, Platinum Performance, Cowboy Channel, NextGen Rodeo, Uvalde County Fairplex, Dan Kinsel Ranches , Legend Tack and Silver was such an INCREDIBLE event with beautiful, top-quality prizes.
🐴🛢️The barrel race was one of the most inclusive youth events I've seen in the youth rodeo world. They had interactive "races" for the whole family including stick horse races, the dad barrel race(HILARIOUS!!), and bringing back the good old-fashioned boot scramble. One of my favorite things they did was have prizes to make Everyone feel like a champion even if they didn't place. I don't mean like everyone gets a participation ribbon type prize, I mean prizes to let the girls know their effort, their grit and their horsemanship doesn't go unnoticed for both Junior and Senior Divisions.
📷 Here are a few sneak peeks and behind the scenes photos from Saturday. It was such an honor and so heartwarming to be able to photograph 𝑪𝑶𝑴𝑴𝑬𝑴𝑶𝑹𝑨𝑻𝑰𝑽𝑬 𝑷𝑯𝑶𝑻𝑶𝑺 (of the girls and their horses) as a memory from the barrel race! I am actively working on editing them as we speak and will have the edits up on the gallery by next 𝑺𝑨𝑻𝑼𝑹𝑫𝑨𝒀 (𝟏𝟎/𝟐𝟓) at the latest. Here is a link to gallery in case you didn't get to sign up the day of https://abbyherndonphotography.pixieset.com/haileykinselbarrelrace2025/
📸 ALSO HUGE SHOUT OUT to Wayne Johnson for the awesome 𝙤𝙛𝙛𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙡 𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙚 𝙥𝙝𝙤𝙩𝙤𝙨! If you haven't purchased or checked out your official race photo you need to! I have seen some really beautiful photos that he has been posting. Here is his link if you are looking for where to purchase them! https://wayne-johnson.smugmug.com/Hailey-Kinsel-Youth-Barrel-Race-Saturday