story by Lindsay Humphrey
If you’ve been at the last few NHSRA finals, then you’ve likely either seen or heard the talent of Dalli Cain from Mountainair, New Mexico. She’s helped start the rodeo by playing the National Anthem on her fiddle. More than just talented with a fiddle, Dalli is also deadly accurate with a rifle. She took fourth in the nation in the light rifle at the 2021 NHSRA finals. “I blew my personal best out of the water in the short go and that moved me up from twelfth to fourth place,” said the 15-yearold high school junior. “That’s never happened to me before. Last year I was in tenth after the long round and that’s where I stayed and the same the year before.”
Even though Dalli won the trap shooting and took reserve in the light rifle at state finals, she wasn’t all that confident in her performances. She headed to nationals behind fellow NMHSRA shooter, Zane Cline, who won the light rifle at state. “Zane is a really good shooter and I’ve only ever beat him three times, one time was this season and then at nationals. I always know I’m shooting well if I can beat him. That’s always a proud moment for me when I can get that done.” When Dalli’s mom, Brenda, first threw out the idea of shooting sports, it wasn’t well received. It didn’t take long for that to change.
“I was very adamant that I did not want anything to do with shooting sports. The first time I shot competitively, I got second place. That was really crazy for me, so it was hard not to like it after that.” Dalli’s first few shoots were off the cuff, but she eventually found some coaches to help her out. “Jerry Wright kind of took me under his wing and he’s been coaching me in the trap shooting ever since then. And then Tony Otero is my rifle coach and he’s been coaching me since my freshman year. He’s helped me improve a ton.” During the regular season, Dalli is shooting with her coaches once a week but ramped that up in preparation for nationals. Since Dalli also shoots in the New Mexico High School Clay Target Association, she’s rarely home on a weekend in the spring and fall.
Much like shooting, Dalli was leery of taking up breakaway roping. Once again, her mom knew she’d like it, so she entered Dalli. She gets quite a bit of help from her uncle, PRCA calf roper, Wes Mack. “My uncle doesn’t live close, so I’ll go up and stay with him for a month at a time. I was there all of February this year. He’s helped me learn a lot and get quite a bit better.” Despite great coaching and a strong work ethic, Dalli still found herself in a dry spell in the roping pen this summer. “When you have a bad day and feel like you want to quit, you just have to fight that feeling and keeping going. I know I’ll be a better competitor for it.”
Dalli’s longtime rodeo events – barrels, poles and goats – got started at a local gymkhana. She started out in the leadline and moved on up to ride on her own as she got older. “I really like to run poles, because when my horse and I can leave them all up we can really smoke ‘em.” With the stiff competition of the NMHSRA to keep Dalli on her toes, she’s thankful for the push to continue to improve in her various events. “I really like all the people in the association and all my friends that are there to support me. I also like getting to go to new places. There are a lot of places I’ve been for a rodeo that I wouldn’t have seen otherwise. I’ve gotten to see more of my state, as well as other states, because of rodeo.” When Dalli isn’t practicing, she’s usually reading or keeping up with her schoolwork, but she really loves helping her dad, David, around the ranch, as long as it isn’t fencing.
