SEALING THE DEAL Beisel Wins Albuquerque and Abilene To Secure Fourth NFR Qualification By Ted Harbin T he 2022 ProRodeo season wasn’t the first time Emily Beisel was on the barrel-racing bubble, but it was a bit different than before. In 2020, she was 12th in the world standings heading to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. Last year, she was 10th. But
as this summer rolled closer to autumn, there were some tense moments for the Weatherford, Oklahoma, cowgirl if she intended to secure her fourth straight qualification to the sport’s grand championship, which takes place Dec. 1-10 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. That’s why she found some new haunts and an interesting bit of learning during her run through the Northwest, but what clinched her position at ProRodeo’s Super Bowl was returning closer to home the third week in September. She won both the New Mexico State Fair and Rodeo in Albuquerque and the West Texas Fair and Rodeo in Abilene. “Abilene and Albuquerque sealed the deal for us,” Beisel said, referring to her team of helpers and her three-pronged stable of horses: Namgis D 33, a 12-year-old grey gelding she calls Chongo; Namgis D 35, a 12-year-old sorrel gelding she calls Pipewrench; and Biddin on Fame, a 9-year-old bay gelding she calls Beau. “It’s awesome to know we’re going back to the NFR. It just gets tougher every year to qualify. More girls are out here pursuing it, and the horsepower is incredible. The goal is to make the NFR, but I want to do right by my horses. I have three incredible horses, and they’re all in their prime. They’ve been really good to me.” Yes, they have, and they’ve been the guiding force not only behind her four straight trips to the NFR but also for her successful runs during the 10-day championship. At both Albuquerque and Abilene, Chongo handled the heavy lifting, and that produced a combined $7,173 in earnings just when Beisel needed it. She and the grey rounded the cloverleaf pattern in 17.15 seconds in Abilene to win by a 10th of a second; they were 15.28 in New
Mexico, just one-hundredth of a second ahead of Shannon McReynolds. It was nice to be back in territory with which she was more familiar. “That was my first time to go and stay in the Northwest,” she said. “There was a lot of learning going on. I thought Puyallup (Washington) would suit Chongo, and it really didn’t. I thought Ellensburg would fit Beau, but I tipped a barrel. We were really close to doing some big things and couldn’t quite get it together.” Still, Beisel pocketed nearly $20,000 while rodeoing about 2,000 miles from her western Oklahoma home. “Chongo is on break,” she said during the final week of September. “That’s the longest I’ve been away from home. Now, we have to work on some things to get ourselves ready. December gets here a lot faster than you think. As much as you’d like to kick your feet up and relax, there isn’t any time.” A former national champion through the circuit system, Beisel likes to make it back to the Midwest in order to compete at events in the Prairie Circuit. With her place in the standings at the time – and a few other considerations – she opted to remain in the Northwest for the duration. “The biggest deals were the fuel prices and the lack of entries at these smaller rodeos in the Prairie Circuit,” Beisel said. “The purse wasn’t going to be enough where you could win enough to get you there. I had to go where there was more added money.” Because of that, she will return to the NFR, where she has found success. Last December, she earned $129,091 over 10 nights and finished third in the world standings. In the two years prior, she also finished among the top five, so the NFR has been good to her. “You hope things will go as good as they have in the past, but it’s a new rodeo every day,” Beisel said. “You have to run your race and focus on every single night. I have had it start out magical, and I’ve had it start horrendous. You just never know. It’s going to be a knife fight. There are a lot of great horses returning to the Thomas & Mack.” Emily Beisel used a fourth quarter win at the New Mexico State Fair and Rodeo in Albuquerque, to help secure her spot in her fourth consecutive Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. Chongo got the win stopping the clock in 15.28 seconds. Photo by Phillip Kitts
Emily Beisel and Chongo raced their way to the finish line in Albuquerque and in the 2022 regular season. With the win in Albuquerque and Abilene, Texas, the same weekend, the duo now turns their attention to preparing to run down the alleyway at the Thomas and Mack Center in December in Las Vegas. Photo by Phillip Kitts
32 WPRA NEWS OCTOBER 2022
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