Back to the drawing board: Tohatchi barrel racer fine-tunes routine to score win

PINE HILL, N.M.

After a one-day stint at the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo, Kassidy Dennison felt the need to go back to the drawing board.

The Tohatchi, New Mexico cowgirl competed at the iconic rodeo last Friday and after not having the best of runs with her new horse Candy, she wanted to use last Saturday’s NNRA’s Peshlakai Angels Don’t Drink and Drive Rodeo as a way to fine-tune their routine.

“My run in Cheyenne wasn’t the best,” she said. “I kind of missed my first barrel so my goal was to get a great first barrel.”

On Saturday, they nailed it as they beat out a tough field with a winning time of 17.948 seconds with Indian Wells, Arizona cowgirl Alexandra Begay trailing a close second with a 17.959 run.

Evidently, her first-place run in the barrels gave Dennison the edge in the women’s all-around race despite being assessed a 10-second penalty in the breakaway event.

“I thought I saw the start that I needed but breakaway roping has been a struggle for me,” she said. “I don’t what’s going on. It’s been one of those deals to where you don’t have luck on your side.”

As the all-around winner, Dennison collected $1,000 from the Peshlakai family, the sponsor of Saturday’s rodeo.

Her older sister, Devyn, was the breakaway winner as she turned in a 3.38 run in Saturday afternoon’s performance.

“Absolutely not,” Devyn said when asked if she thought her run would hold up as she set the pace as the third roper out. “With this setup I’m surprised that a 3.3 won it. The cattle were real slow so you had to really score good.

“My thought process was to make sure that my calf left,” she added. “I just wanted to make sure that my first swing was down. That is basically what I think about every time I go out and rope.

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