On May 18, inside AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys, Mississippi cowgirl Kindyl Scruggs battled through a barrel racing run aboard Melrose Chrome to win the $60,000 Women’s Rodeo World Championship prize.
- Kindyl Scruggs and “Underdog” Melrose Chrome Advance to 2024 Stampede at The E Triple Crown of Rodeo Round
- The Barrel Racers and Horses Taking on WRWC Championship Round During PBR World Finals on May 18
Scruggs and Chrome bested the field of 12 barrel racers—six of which advanced through the WCRA Pro ranks, and six through the challenger ranks—in 15.384 seconds, besting the pack by nearly .4 seconds. Combined with Scruggs’ $1,000 Semifinals win, her total WRWC event earnings came to $61,000.
“I’ve said it once this week, and I’ll say it again: When it’s God’s timing, nothing is going to stop it from being your day. When it isn’t, nothing you do to force it is going to make it work.”
Kindyl Scruggs
What’s the first thing Scruggs did en route from the alleyway to her $60,000 check presentation?
“I had to ask (WRWC’s Sami Jo Smith) to borrow her phone so I could call my mom,” Scruggs said. “She looked at me like I was crazy for a second, because who doesn’t have their phone on them in that situation? Well, me. I’m extremely superstitious, and I just don’t take my phone to the arena when I’m running. Period. I wasn’t chancing things in Arlington, and I only had about 30 seconds free before I walked out on stage. Luckily, she gave me her phone. I dialed my mom and said ‘It’s me! I won! I’ll call you back!’ as soon as she answered, then I pretty much had to hang up.”
By Monday morning when BarrelRacing.com called, Scruggs was back in the office grinding.
In the whirlwind 48 hours following the Saturday evening performance, Scruggs hit multiple press appearances, cared for Chrome and turned her rig toward Mississippi. She pulled into her driveway Sunday morning at 7:30 a.m., took a quick nap, handled stallion needs for her pony stud, Jack, and headed to a family and friends celebration at a local restaurant.
Who is Kindyl Scruggs?
For a national audience, Scruggs might be a new name, but ask any barrel racer in the Eastern United States and Canada about the pint-sized athlete and they’ll quickly let you know that she’s a fixture at the top of major races and rodeos across the land.
Her humble roots are a far cry from the bright lights of the packed PBR World Finals she encountered in Arlington.
“Neither of my parents rodeod or even rode horses,” Scruggs said. “I really wanted a pony when I was two years old, and my parents got me one. But we lived in a neighborhood, so we just had this pony in our backyard.”
At the age of eight, things changed course for young Scruggs when her mother, a manager at UPS, met up with Darlene Scott.
“Darlene didn’t really do lessons,” Scruggs said. “But, my mom convinced her to give me barrel racing lessons. I learned everything from her family. She helped me get saddles, horses, bits, all of it.”
Fast forward 10 years, and Scruggs was attending Northwest Mississippi Communtiy College on a rodeo scholarship. She qualified for her first IFR the same year she headed to Casper, Wyoming, for her first College National Finals Rodeo. She would go on to win an Ozark Region title aboard her infamous blue roan gelding, Drift By Buck, or “Blue,” at the collegiate level. Her faithful Blue would also carry her to multiple IFR appearances before passing the torch to Scruggs’ next standout, young Money Red Down Home, or “Bull,” for at least nine appearances to date in total for Scruggs. She also collected two IFR aggregate titles, plus an IPRA world championship within that timeframe.
Bull suffered an injury in 2020 while Scruggs was in the lead for the Resistol Rookie of the Year race in the WPRA—landing her at the Southeastern Circuit Finals but out of national conversation come fall. She knew she had to look for another diamond in the rough to support Bull eventually.
“I’ve never spent a ton of money on horses,” said Scruggs, who works as a logistics coordinator for a plumbing company by day. “I saw (Melrose Chrome) on a Facebook post originally. He came from South Florida originally, but a kid was running him and he got into a habit of breaking the pattern. I traded two colts for him, sight unseen.”
The cowgirl broke it down to basics with “Chrome,” and helped him through his quirks, then found her place back atop the leaderboards consistently. She first became interested in the WCRA and WRWC events when they joined forces with the IPRA and offered the opportunity for athletes to count earnings toward the association’s world standings.
“It’s a no-brainer for me,” Scruggs said. “I won about $8,000 at Rodeo Corpus Christi last year, filled my $10,000 through WCRA at The Stampede at the E last year, and now (the WRWC paid off). I can make less runs, it helps me put less miles on my horses and I can still have a chance at the IFR.”
