About Me

I grew up on a working cattle ranch in Texas where I learned from my parents, Dan and Leslie Kinsel, how to be a steward of the land and animals God has given us to care for. I don’t remember a day where I didn’t love and gravitate towards horses; they were both our partners in the ranch work and very capable babysitters during the work for my brother, Matt, and I. The older we got, they became our companions in competition as well, as we started competing in rodeo and horse show events through our local youth rodeo association and 4-H club. Though my mom made sure Matt and I played several sports, studied music, participated in community and church activities, and of course, prioritized our school work, my attention stayed on the horses always. No matter what else I tried, I always came back to my mom and told her I just wanted to ride. I am thankful my parents kept me well rounded, helped me participate in every rodeo event I could enter, and began teaching me how to train horses at a young age.

My high school years were spent busy with high school rodeo and showing animals in 4-H, along with leadership and administrative positions in both associations. I attended my dream school at Texas A&M University where I studied in the Agriculture department and competed in college rodeo. I graduated from Texas A&M Class of 2017 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Ag Economics, Finance & Real Estate. In the same year, a special little mare my mom and I trained together, now widely known as “Sister,” launched my professional career with a colossal win at The American Rodeo, earning a total of $433,333 in one day.

Sister, that special horse, was purchased by my parents as a 2-year-old. We were drawn to her because of another we owned at the time that was a maternal half sister, hence where her name came from. Together, my mom and I rode her on the ranch and trained her on the barrel pattern. At age 5, Sister was the first horse I competed on at the futurity barrel races. That same year, we began seasoning her at the rodeos, where she placed, and soon won, her first professional rodeos. At age 6, she carried me to our first of now 3 The American Rodeo titles. The same year, she took me to my first National Finals Rodeo, where we broke, and still hold, the arena record at the Thomas & Mack NFR. By age 7, she had won us countless rodeos, leading to our first WPRA barrel racing world championship.

Today, DM Sissy Hayday, a.k.a. Sister is the highest earning quarter horse mare of all time in any discipline, at $2.8 million in barrel racing earnings and still competing at age 12. Four world championships and many, many wins and arena records later, Sister is the reason I have a career. From the beginning of our career, it was very clear to us that Sister was a gift from God, and to be truly thankful for that gift, it was our job to be the best steward of the horse as we could be, and to make sure that everything Sister and I did together was done for the glory of our Lord and Savior. God has opened doors so many doors for me through not only Sister, but every horse before and after, and as long as He says to, we will just keep on running through them.