Hailey Kinsel won her second consecutive NFR barrel racing go-round after setting a new Round 2 record of 13.48 seconds on Dec. 6, 2024.
Kinsel doubled her $33,687 payday from the first night with a repeat win on the second night of the 2024 National Finals Rodeo aboard the all-time high money-earning barrel racing mare DM Sissy Hayday, “Sister.”
The win marked round win No. 23 for the Cotulla, Texas, duo. They earned No. 22 just 24 hours earlier, clocking a 13.38 on the first night of competition to dominate the field. Just as in Round 1, Kinsel broke the Thomas & Mack NFR go-round record with her time. However, the runs weren’t completely similar. On night one, Kinsel ran from the No. 1 position on the ground, then returned to come running from the No. 14 draw on night two.
Sister has the Thomas & Mack figured out, but it wasn’t by accident or irreproducible phenomenon that the duo rose to the top each night. The four-time world champion adjusts her strategy on every run, carefully planning each of Sister’s hoofprints on the dirt.
“Being at the bottom [in Round 2], I knew I was going to have to drive her through ruts,” Kinsel said. “It worked out because she was really aggressive. [In Round 1] I just tried not to get in her way and let her take off [in the alleyway]. She was a little more centered in the gate than I wanted to be last night. Tonight, I figured since I needed to cross the ruts perfectly, I would hold her a tick inside the gate and send her left. Well, when I did that, I took hold of her for a second and she was not thrilled with me. But, it quartered her to the right, which allowed me to swing her left and take her in square.”
With a flawless pattern, Kinsel touched all three barrels. On just the second of 10 rounds, that was not quite her intent with a world championship, plus an aggregate title that pays close to $90,000, on the line.
“The first barrel was a little uncomfortable,” Kinsel said. “But then we got around it and I thought, ‘Okay, I need to drive her through this turn.’ My only change was that I wanted to drive her more into the third barrel tonight.”
A slight out-of-position placement leaving the second barrel put Kinsel straight into one of barrel racing’s toughest zones: the middle of the pen, approaching her third barrel with a horse already itching to commit to her turn early.
“At that point, I just have to ride straight by it on her,” Kinsel said. “My goal became a straight line. And I’m glad I did that because she was still tight on three.”
Kinsel noted she would attend barrel racing practice at 6 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 7, to ride Sister inside the arena and get her comfortable pushing into the walls. The duo will then return for Round 3, where they’ll move up to No. 12 on the ground that evening.
Although Kinsel has been swarmed with both negative and positive comments online and followed by cameras around the clock in Las Vegas, she remains focused on running her own race. However, she is grateful for the following she has accumulated over the years and the industry’s love for Sister.
“It really is an honor,” Kinsel said. “The whole goal when I started out on Sis and knew she was this special, was for other people to see how special she is. It’s amazing that the sport of rodeo, including the media and the fans have really enveloped that and gotten on Sister’s team. I love that, because I love her too.”
