story by Lindsay King
Bucking bulls and colts are part of everyday life for Kylie Kanngiesser of Attica, Kansas. At just 11 years old she got her first horse, a two-year-old paint named Titans ‘R’ Us, who she helped break and train to show in western pleasure and showmanship in 4-H. They learned everything together, he was the first horse she ever broke. When she was only 14 years old, Kylie started taking in outside horses to train. She mostly focused on starting young horses from the ground up. “That’s honestly about the only job I ever really had.”
Just before starting high school Kylie fell in love with the complexity of pole bending and Titan had the athleticism to excel at it. “It’s all about timing. It was a lot more of a challenge than running barrels to me. In barrels you have a lot of time to set your horse up and think about what you are about to do. But in poles you have to be on your game. I have always been drawn to a challenge.” She ran both poles and barrels in the Kansas High School Rodeo Association on Titan. “He has more grit and more heart than anything you have ever seen. More people probably know that horse than know me.” In 2005 and 2006, Kylie qualified for the National Finals High School Rodeo in pole bending. The only horse she had to compete on was Titan and as luck would have it, he got hurt a few weeks before heading to Wyoming. “We went in there a little unprepared but we still did well.” After graduation, Kylie intended to attend college until the horse she planned to college rodeo on shattered his pastern bone. She decided to take the year off and travel the rodeo circuit for the remainder of 2006 with Cooper, her boyfriend at the time who she married in 2007, the year he qualified for the WNFR in bull riding.
Today, Kylie buys and trains colts to sell when she is not occupied by Kanngiesser Cattle Company. Cooper grew up in a rodeo family that bred bucking bulls. Now, Kylie and Cooper raise their own bulls including the 2012 PBR World Champion 781 Asteroid. “He is our claim to fame, Cooper’s family raised his sire and dam.” They run about 35 head of rodeo cows along with 30 bulls, selling the bulls when they turn three. “It is just a passion of ours.” A commercial black Angus herd of about 100 head makes up the second half of the cattle company. Kylie stays at home with her kids, Talan and Katherine, while taking care of the cattle. “I am the behind-the-scenes cattle company operator.” Kylie helps other local ranchers during calving season as well as running the scale at the local sale barn. “These cattle are just as fun to me as the horses, if not more.”
Kylie serves as a director for Central 4-D Barrel Racers and finds herself seasoning two barrel horses at jackpots and in the CePRA. “I have trained a lot of horses so I never really have had a seasoned barrel race.” Slick, an 11-year-old sorrel Quarter Horse gelding, is Kylie’s go-to, from roping and dragging calves out in the field to running barrels, he can do it all. However, Slick is accident-prone, he had eight feet of his intestine removed as a four-year-old and continues to get himself into trouble. She is also running on Tag, a six-year-old bay Quarter Horse gelding, who she bought last year and has made tremendous strides on in only one year of training. Sometimes it can be hard to get to a barrel race simply because of her location but the CePRA has been great as far as location and added money goes for Kylie. “The CePRA is one of the best around here, they have great rodeos and they pay better than most.”
