The epic horse race between Hailey Kinsel’s Sister and Leslie Smalygo’s Gus was one for the ages in Calgary, Alberta this year at the Calgary Stampede as the two friends traded go-round wins and smoking 16-second runs in the big arena.
On 13-year-old Sister and 14-year-old Gus, the gals finished literally four-hundredths of a second apart for that $50,000 bonus.
Table of contents
The world’s friendliest rivalry
“They raced Gus as a 2-year-old, so when he sees that open track running out of the Calgary arena, he kicks up into even more gears,” recalled Smalygo, of Skiatook, Oklahoma. “I couldn’t get him stopped until I was halfway around the track— I could have been an outrider for the chuckwagons over there. And when I finally got him stopped, I thought Hailey had run a 16.93 and she’d won it. So I gave her a hug and said, ‘Congratulations!’ And she said, ‘No, congratulations to you!’ And I said, ‘I’m pretty sure I didn’t win it.’ We were arguing. I said, ‘You were supposed to win it!’”
Smalygo and Gus had laid down five runs in Calgary clocking a 17.14, 17.06, 17.08, 16.990 and finally 16.940 – compared to Kinsel’s final time of 16.986 – to bank $68,000 total.
“Anytime you can keep up with Sister and Hailey, you know you’ve done something,” Smalygo said. “Being in the company I was in and having it be such a tight race, it was so special to me. I felt honored. I felt like I really accomplished something. Because I always feel like the underdog – no one expects it from me. I’m the Western Pleasure and English girl from a small town. I didn’t grow up doing this.”
Which makes it even more remarkable that Smalygo also won the $50,000 bonus at Houston this year. She’s been to the same 40 rodeos as everyone else, but raking in six figures at just two is truly the stuff dreams are made of.
“I’ll never have a year like this again. Very rarely do people have a year like this. I’ll take it for the ride it is, enjoy it with my family, feed off it and next year will be a whole new year.”
Leslie Smalygo
Leslie Smalygo’s 2024 dream season
“This season really is a dream,” said Smalygo, right after also winning the first round at Cheyenne Frontier Days. “You always imagine how cool it would be if that happened, but you never think it would be happening to you. Now that it’s actually happening, I don’t know what to do with myself because I’m kind of shocked. It’s tunnel vision – after that run, you just start thinking about the next run. I don’t really allow myself to soak in the moment.”
It’s a far cry from last year. After unexpectedly making the 2022 NFR, Smalygo finished outside the Top 15 last year.
“I just couldn’t get things to go my way,” she said. “I was winning checks but not winning anything spectacular.”
She reckons that Gus never really got a break after the ’22 NFR, and just stayed tired. This year, however, has been nothing short of remarkable. Last year at Calgary, Smalygo and Gus had tipped a barrel to make the Showdown Round. So this year, for the first time, Smalygo put a bat in each hand and used them both to stay clean.
“As long as I tap down Gus’ inside shoulder, he’ll keep a better pocket,” she said. “Otherwise, he’s so ratey and turney. Like, in those second and third rounds I had to lift the second barrel back up. On that last run I just thought, ‘We’re not taking any chances.’”
Smalygo’s other ace decision was to fly her equine chiropractor Robbie Stidham to Calgary to adjust Gus, who’d arrived with a rotated pelvis and stuck sacrum. Stidham worked on the great horse the night before Round One and every day she ran him there. Smalygo also credits Spectra Equine’s supplements that helped Gus bounce back from a severe tying-up episode in Reno just about 10 days earlier.
“I have more confidence in Gus than I have in myself,” she said. “If I just stay out of his way, he writes the story for me.”
As for how he’s become so dominant this summer, she thinks it’s his power between the barrels.
“The big thing is also, he does not run past a barrel,” said Smalygo, who rode reining horses for years but says she didn’t teach him that unorthodox butt-drag he does at the barrels (it was natural). “As long as I keep forward momentum around the first barrel, we’ve got it.”
She’s been running him in a hackamore for about seven years, in order to best stay out of his way and stay clean. In fact, he never wants to be pulled on.
“If I hold him back in the alley, he gets really mad and won’t run,” she said. “If he turns and goes, you’d better be ready or he’s leaving without you.”
The Gus and Leslie Smalygo story
Smalygo bought Gus off the track as a 3-year-old because she’d owned his full brother and loved him, but sold him early thanks to an offer she couldn’t turn down. Registered as Justaheartbeattofame, Gus has a sire by the half-Thoroughbred Lanes Leinster out of a Dash For Cash granddaughter. And his dam is by Dash Ta Fame out of a mare going back to By Yawl (Dash For Cash/Go Man Go) and Duplicate Copy.
Like the trainer often referred to as the GOAT – Kassie Mowry – Smalygo grew up riding English.
“It just teaches you so much feel to your horse,” she explained. “You have to really feel to know what diagonal you’re on, know how to shape their body or how to move a rib over or whatever is needed. And if you get that foundation in a horse where they’re that broke, training doesn’t take very long. Also, you understand headset. If a horse is running with its head up, it’s not focused on you.”
Smalygo said she allows a horse to choose his favorite style of turning. She’s also finishing 5-year-old Rocky, who’s in the trailer now with Gus and is by the same sire. Rocky keeps a bit more forward momentum at the barrels, she said.
Anyway, the massive checks she’s banked on Gus have taken a lot of pressure off this season.
“I get to run him and have fun, and whatever happens, happens,” she said. “My mantra is actually to expect the worst and hope for the best. That way, you don’t get your hopes up. I really go with ‘whatever happens, happens.’ Because if you expect something or you want it really bad, you start screwing up. So I just expect to get beat. There’s still a lot of season left. Whatever keeps Gus happy is what we’re going to do. Rocky will help out when he can.”
She had to run Rocky at Reno – his first rodeo – after Gus tied up and spent a few nights at a Nevada clinic attached to five IV bags. That meant he was still recovering over the Fourth, and Smalygo didn’t win any paychecks. The baby slump was enough to make her dye her hair, just like she did at Houston.
Why the pink hair?
“It started in 2022 at Cheyenne when I didn’t make a very good run in slack,” she recalled. “I thought, I’ve got to make a change. It seemed like a good idea to color my hair red and say I was running with my hair on fire. I mean, I needed to make money if I was going to make the NFR. When I won Houston this year, I actually had yellow, burgundy and brown streaks. The same day I left for Calgary, I picked out a pinkish purple/red color, and Summer (Kosel) and I dyed it at my trailer. It worked! If I’m in a slump, I’m going to change my hair.”
The Gus relatives
Gus’ sire died last year, but Smalygo was able to purchase Rocky’s dam and a few other broodmares including the stud’s full sister. She calls it her “retirement.” In the meantime, her welder husband Glenn stopped working and hit the road to help Leslie drive.
