If barrel racers know one thing about NFR qualifier Tiany Schuster, it’s that she knows how to find and jockey some of the most iconic horses in the game, and she may have just made another diamond shine en route to her California Rodeo Salinas 2024 barrel racing championship.
Schuster, who broke the WPRA earnings record back in 2017—before Brittany Pozzi Tonozzi came in and broke well, nearly every record imaginable in her landmark 2023 season—nearly swept Salinas en route to her total payday of $17,798 and the aggregate title. Her times of 16.12, 15.94 and 15.97 in the first three rounds of competition earned her two round wins and one second-place finish behind Sharin Hall and Hello Stella, plus the aggregate lead going into the final round. That meant she was in the bottom spot on the ground with a halfway drag in the performance of 12. But Schuster wasn’t sweating.
“If you go back and look at my record, nobody’s lost at more finals than me. That’s my weakness. So did I have confidence? No. I wasn’t going in there to win it. I was going in there to do my job and not lose it. I have to thank Salinas for not having anything to distract me because their ground was exceptional. I never had to worry about anything about riding, even being last out.
Tiany Schuster
Her final time of 15.98 earned her the short round win and clinched the aggregate victory in 64.01, an entire second ahead of reserve champion Halyn Lide’s 65.01 on four runs. Her 5-year-old weapon of choice was Shines By Design is a 2019 gelding by Slye By Design and out of SSSheShinzLikADiamond who was bred, raised and trained by Haley Fauste, a recent college graduate who hails from Kentucky.
The Salinas runs represented four of the six to seven Schuster has made on the new mount at the ProRodeo level. The cash they’re raking in from California will only help Schuster continue to rise up the WPRA standings, where she’s held a top 15 position for most of 2024. She emphasized that the success she’s had on paper doesn’t translate to a smooth mental or physical road along the way, however.
“I knocked to be close to the top at Nampa last night,” Schuster said on the day of her victory. “(HR) cruised out to clock great. So last night’s heartbreak was today’s success. I heard an interview with Junior Nogueira recently where he was talking about different athletes being coolers, closers and all that. I’ve never considered myself a closer, but today I guess we were.”
Schuster left immediately after the performance and caring for HR to hustle North. Talking through the Bluetooth system on her truck while rolling down the highway, Schuster was sure not to leave anybody who had a hand in the win left in the shadows.
“I just did my job and the horse made it an easy job to do,” Schuster said. “There’s so many people to thank and it’s a chain reaction. Like Edwin Cameron standing by my side for the last 17 years, Jason (Martin) and Charlie (Cole) for Highpoint’s breeding program, Haley for deciding to breed her mare and train this horse, to the committee at Salinas working harder than anything on the ground. If those people and so many others wouldn’t have done all they did, I wouldn’t be here. It’s not just me.”
Back in Indiana in a different truck, driving between amateur rodeos, Fauste was watching The Cowboy Channel as the Salinas short round aired, screaming.
“I was riding with her every step of the way,” Fauste said. “I was screaming at my phone during the run, and then bawling my eyes out when they won.”
The Shines By Design Story
“(HR) handled Salinas better than I’ve had some seasoned horses handle things. I think he was more relaxed and chill before the short round there with the crowds and all the commotion than at slack. I just have to say what an outstanding job Haley did training this horse and preparing him, hauling him, roping on him, futuritying him, taking him through the American semifinals—but there’s nothing like a Salinas short round. He really took it all in.”
Tiany Schuster
HR’s journey with Schuster may be just beginning on the ProRodeo trail, but that’s certainly not the start of the young gelding’s story.
Fauste had great success on HR’s dam, “Lainey,” in her high school rodeo career, before the mare’s reign was abruptly ended by injury. Next thing young Fauste knew, she found herself at the HighPoint Barrel Horses booth at a barrel race, signing up for the opportunity to breed to any of their superstar stallions to cross on her beloved mare. As fate would have it, her name was drawn for a breeding in junior stallion Slye By Design’s first foal crop.
HR was Fauste’s pride and joy back in Kentucky and represented her first opportunity to take a horse start to finish to test her chops as a barrel horse trainer. From stepfather Mike Tobin’s colt starting prowess, the expert guidance and encouragement of her mom, Lori, and grandparents Terry and Otis Freeman, the family came together to support Fauste as she battled the ups and downs of training.
But things weren’t panning out as Fauste hoped.
“Mike put a great handle on him for me while I finished up my spring semester at Southern Arkansas University,” Fauste said. “When I came home, I started riding him for the summer. I didn’t put him on the barrels because I didn’t want to push him. I roped the sled on him and just worked him. He was lazy—I had to whip him just to get him to lope. He looked like a mule. I thought ‘There’s no way this thing came out of Lainey. He’s nothing like her.’ So, I decided to post him for sale that summer of his 3-year-old year.”
When nobody would even make an offer on the sluggish, awkward colt, Fauste decided it was a sign to give him one last try. Just months later, Fauste’s tone regarding the horse changed when he went to the barrel pattern.
“I called my Nana in September and said ‘I think he’s going to make it. He just got fast on the barrels. He craved it. He turned like Lainey. The similarities blew my mind. By December he was placing at futurities.”
Haley Fauste
From there, Fauste rode the seasoning rollercoaster and slowly started finding success at regional futurities, then bigger ones, then the 4-year-old showed he could handle the pressure of the college rodeo scene when her main mount came up hurt. Come May 2023, Fauste received her first call from Schuster after falling down at the Old Fort Days in Fort Smith.
“Tiany called me up and wanted to buy him,” Fauste said. “I didn’t have a ton of money into him and at that point just wanted to keep having fun and see where things took us. She stayed on my case. She would text me, call me, and we kind of started becoming friends through that whole process. She was riding along for everything HR and I did.”
When Fauste gathered her entire family for counsel and ultimately decided to sell HR, Schuster promised she’d hold off until Fauste had the opportunity to compete in the American Contender Finals Eastern Regionals in Lexington, Kentucky. Fauste just missed the Contender Finals by one position, and although disappointed, she stuck to her word and made the sale on her heart horse in order to give him better opportunities and free herself from personal financial burdens, allowing her to pursue her own career and barrel racing dreams more fully.
“He ended up with the best person he could have,” Fauste said. “She fits him like a glove. Tiany has kept me involved in every step—she sends me updates, talks to me before almost every run. She’s made me feel more included than I should be, honestly, and I’m grateful for that. HighPoint has stayed involved too—I have embryos out of Lainey to Slye that I’m really looking forward to. I never would have thought in a million years HR could do this, but I’m so proud.”
Salinas Barrel Racing Results 2024
First round: 1. Tiany Schuster, 16.12 seconds, $3,009; 2. Halyn Lide, 16.17, $2,579; 3. Taycie Matthews, 16.23, $2,149; 4. Sissy Winn, 16.26, $1,863; 5. Shelby Bates, 16.32, $1,433; 6. Sara Winkelman, 16.33, $1,146; 7. Stephanie Fryar, 16.35, $860; 8. Kay Cochran, 16.38, $573; 9. Shelley Holman, 16.42, $430; 10. (tie) Madison Camozzi and Payton Schoeppach, 16.43, $143 each
Second round: 1. Tiany Schuster, 15.94 seconds, $3,009; 2. Shelby Bates, 15.99, $2,579; 3. Taycie Matthews, 16.07, $2,149; 4. Shelley Holman, 16.11, $1,863; 5. Sara Winkelman, 16.12, $1,433; 6. Jamie Olsen, 16.16, $1,146; 7. Meghann Pearce, 16.21, $860; 8. Ashley Castleberry, 16.25, $573; 9. Kayla Turner, 16.26, $430; 10. Kathy Petska, 16.31, $287
Third round: 1. Sharin Hall, 15.92 seconds, $3,009; 2. Tiany Schuster, 15.97, $2,579; 3. Sissy Winn, 16.00, $2,149; 4. Halyn Lide, 16.03, $1,863; 5. Taycie Matthews, 16.05, $1,433; 6. Jodee Miller, 16.09, $1,146; 7. Hayle Gibson, 16.17, $860; 8. Payton Schoeppach, 16.21, $573; 9. Kathy Petska, 16.23, $430; 10. Sara Winkelman, 16.26, $287
Finals: 1. Tiany Schuster, 15.98 seconds, $3,184; 2. Stephanie Fryar, 16.21, $2,388; 3. Sidney Forrest, 16.22, $1,592; 4. Sara Winkelman, 16.34, $796
Average: 1. Tiany Schuster, 64.01 seconds on four head, $6,017; 2. Halyn Lide, 65.01, $5,158; 3. Sara Winkelman, 65.05, $4,298; 4. Shelby Bates, 65.35, $3,725; 5. Kathy Petska, 65.50, $2,865; 6. Stephanie Fryar, 65.53, $2,292; 7. Payton Schoeppach, 65.67, $1,719; 8. Meghann Pearce, 65.84, $1,146; 9. Jan Reis, 66.19, $860; 10. Sidney Forrest, 66.20, $573.
