Leicester – “I wanna say how proud I am of a Lil’ 12-year-old cowgirl from Leicester who went and competed in Texas all week for a chance to be the Junior All-American pole bending champion,” stated Dustin Brown, father of Kinsley, on his Facebook.
Brown told the Tribune how his daughter had qualified last year down in Yadkinville, NC for the Junior Patriot All-American Competition. “It’s probably the largest kids’ rodeo in the United States outside the Junior National High School Rodeo Competition,” said Brown. When she competed this year in the nationals in Fort Worth, Texas, out of about 150 contestants, Kinsley came in 3rd with her best time and with an average score, she came in 5th in the 15 and younger class in poll bending. Poll bending is where a horse and rider show how well they work as a team by running a course with plastic polls where they run between the polls. “Fifth out of the country is pretty good,” added Brown.
Given that Kinsley has only been riding for a couple of years, that might be an understatement.
According to Brown, while the family has always lived on a “farm and had horses and stuff. But we never got into the competitive side of it until one day she said, ‘Daddy, I want to barrel race and pole bend.’” Brown thought it would be a short-lived venture as Kinsley had been a softball player and into sports, but what’s a dad to do when his daughter asks?
“I thought I’d end up feeding and taking care of it and all this. It ended up blowing up and being a big thing for her and she loves it. She takes care of her horses every morning. She gets up at 5:30 every morning and feeds them. I don’t ever do a whole lot…for the most part, she does everything on her own…she eats, sleeps and breathes it.” Brown thinks she is so successful is because she is so “passionate” about it and loves her horses – Roany and Frenchie. Brown estimated Kinsley’s winnings at National at over $2,000.
Kinsley, a student at Joe P. Eblen Intermediate School, also competed in the 19 and under division, where she came in sixth. “She was competing with girls in their first year of college rodeoing. I feel like she held her own and did well for a hometown, little 12-year-old from Leicester,” said Brown.
Brown said Kinsley has been encouraged by her success and plans to continue in the competition. “That gave her the drive to go back next year and compete for $70,000.” While the contest she participated in has been around for only four or five years, Brown said the organizers gave out over a million dollars in prize money and scholarships to the youth that were involved. So it appears that Brown and Kinsley’s mom, Amanda, along with brothers Colton and Kollins, will be spending more time on the road at rodeos in the near future.