story by Lindsay King
After a lightning-fast, rain-soaked run early in the week, Cale Neisius just barely missed making the short at the JHSNFR by taking 22nd in the barrel racing. It’s no matter for this fierce 12-year old, she was just excited to make her first trip. The daughter of a barrel horse trainer, Cale has the most experience in the event. “I didn’t get into roping or goat tying until I was about six or seven. I have really good barrel horses right now and that makes it fun,” said the seventh grader. Cale’s main mount came from family friends: Marne Loosenort and Danny Kingins. “They wanted to sell this mare (Easy Down Honor), but Marne was still really attached to her. They chose me to have her after I tried her at a barrel race and won it with her.”
The mare came from Kentucky and this Okmulgee, Oklahoma, cowgirl regularly heads to the Bluegrass state with her mom (Kelly) to work horses with Marne. “We go down there for several days at a time to ride with her. Marne owns a big facility down there with a bunch of futurity horses.” Cale’s been riding horses all her life, starting with a pony named Gonzo. “We still have him and he runs around our yard all the time now. He taught me everything I needed to know about riding. My little sister (Kolbie, 6) learned how to ride on him also.” Kolbie is now attending barrel races with her mom and sister on a full-size horse.
When Cale isn’t at a barrel race, she can be found in the roping pen with her dad, Cody. “I rope with my dad at Cole Bailey’s house, a good family friend of ours. Cole lets me take his really good calf horse to rodeos, but he still ropes on him too.” Cale has her own rope horse, but he’s just for practice. “Cole is nice enough to let me use his good horse. When we both have a rodeo, he usually still lets me take his good one.”
Cale is in her first year of homeschooling through Epic Charter Schools. “I really like it. We decided to do it because we could travel more without missing school, so if we wanted to ride in another state we could. It is just easier during the day that I can do my schoolwork and then work my barrel horses before my dad gets home when we go rope.” Homeschooling is a time saver and is lending itself to making Cale’s rodeo dreams a reality. “Balancing everything can be hard, but we have a really good schedule worked out. In the morning I do some school work and then we ride the barrel horses. We try to feed everyone by 4:30 at night. We stick to our schedule and everything runs smooth.”
One day Cale wants to become either a doctor or a veterinarian, but her biggest life goal right now is to make it to the NFR. Her plan is to go in the barrels right now, but if breakaway becomes an option she’d shoot for both events. Cale has ran under the big lights of the Thomas & Mack once already. “I qualified for the Junior World Finals when I was running at the Lazy E for the KK Run for Vegas. I qualified again this year.” Cale doesn’t plan on making the trip to Vegas this year. I ended up fifth in the second round and fourth in the short go. I think I was 14th in the average.”
