Rodeo’s sister act shines McCannells having a barrel of fun on prairie circuit By: Mike Sawatzky Posted: 6:23 PM CDT Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024

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This article was published 16/10/2024 (590 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Rodeo is more than a sport — it’s a lifestyle for the McCannell sisters.

Shayna, Hannah, Hallie and Bailey McCannell are among the top barrel-racing competitors at this week’s Manitoba Rodeo Cowboys Association finals in Brandon.

The McCannells, who grew up near Carievale, Sask., love their sport, but it’s the thrill of barrel racing — an event in which rider and horse attempt to run a cloverleaf pattern around preset barrels in the fastest time possible — that has stoked their competitive fire.

“I would say we’re very much the same,” said 34-year-old Shayna McCannell, the oldest of the quartet.

“All of us are very competitive. That’s just how we are in anything we do. It’s such a family thing for us because while we’re competing against each other while we’re in the same event, we’re also cheering each other on. If I don’t have a great run, I’m hoping the other three are going to.”

The sisters were raised in the southeastern corner of Saskatchewan but they all have deep roots in Manitoba.

In her life away from rodeo, Shayna is supervisor for the clerical unit at Child and Family Services in Brandon while Bailey, 29, is a psychiatric nurse in the Wheat City.

Meanwhile, 25-year-old Hallie is a psychiatric nurse based in nearby Rivers and recent Brandon University grad, 23-year-old Hannah, is studying to become a Certified Public Accountant in Saskatoon.

Hannah and Hallie, currently 10th and 11th, respectively, in Canadian Cowboys Association barrel racing money leaders, have already qualified for the CCA final slated for next week in North Battleford, Sask.

Shayna (12th) and Bailey (16th) have work to do, vying with two others competitors for the final qualifying spot at the national finals.

It will mark the end of a long season that began with training in February and early season rodeos in April.

“Unfortunately, Bailey and I have not had a great season between some of our horses getting hurt and it was kind of a never-ending battle it felt like for us,” said Shayna, who entered 30 events in various locations acrosss the three Prairie provinces in 2024.

“Like a lot of sports, when things are going good, everything is great and when things start to fall apart or horses get hurt — stuff out of your control — the mental game definitely gets hard. It’s been a long season because it hasn’t gone the best for some of us but we still love it just the same. We’re not going to stop entering. This weekend we’re battling it out and we won’t go out without a fight, that’s for sure.”

Shayna and her sisters got an early start in the sport, encouraged by their dad, Kevin McCannell, 60, a longtime rodeo competitor himself.

“We’ve been on horses since before we could walk,” Shayna said.

“Our dad got us into that. He’s been riding and roping forever, too. That’s kinda how we got into it. We started in the junior events, the same for all four of us. Then we did the high school rodeos and now we stick to the Canadian Cowboys Association events. Bailey and I entered a couple of pro rodeos a couple of years ago to test the waters on that. We’ve competed in all the Prairie provinces and done some rodeos in the States, too.”

Kevin and his wife, Carla, own an acreage near Carievale where the family’s love of rodeo was nurtured. They would hit the road nearly every weekend in a motor home pulling a horse trailer.

“That’s one kind of cool thing about it,” said Kevin, who is employed as field manager for service rigs in the oil industry. “When the kids were growing up, we all went the same direction. We didn’t have one playing ball here and another doing something else. We all rodeoed and we all went together, so that made it pretty easy.”

Carla is not a horse person but she plays a crucial role, nonetheless.

“She has nothing to do with horses as far as riding or any of that but she’s just as big a part of the lifestyle that we kind of do,” Shayna said. “She keeps us all organized — she has since our junior days — and she videos us and provides that support.”

The sisters began their competitive careers at a relatively early age. Shayna set the benchmark, entering rodeos as a 10-year-old.

Safety was always a primary concern for their parents.

“Carla and I always just made sure that once they started going by themselves, they always had pretty trustworthy, bomb-proof horses, so then they didn’t get in a wreck too bad or nothing,” Kevin said. “So they kind of started that way and we just always made sure they had pretty good horses under them to keep them going and keep that problem away.”

The entrants for MRCA Tour finals are based on a point system for events in Manitoba and portions of Saskatchewan in 2024.

Hallie (ranked second), Bailey (ranked eighth) and Shayna (ranked ninth) will all compete in the barrel racing event in Brandon while Hannah will compete in breakaway roping as a result of her No. 5 postion.

“Someone could win this weekend that’s already in the CCA finals but there’s a good handful of people in pretty much all of the events that don’t have a spot in the CCA finals,” said Shayna, who will ride her 12-year-old horse, Handsome. “So we’re all kind of battling it out for the 11th spot (in barrel racing).”

After the season, the horses will spend the winter in Carievale under their Kevin’s supervision.

“We look after our horses more than we do ourselves,” Shayna said. “They’re top performance horses. We go to the vet we feel is the best for our horses. The feed and the supplements and the vet care, all of that, it definitely adds up very fast.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca