KEEPER’S A SLEEPER Denver Co-Champ Halyn Lide Starts 2024 In Style By Tim Gentry S ome horses absolutely scream speed on the pattern. Turns are a tangle of skidding hooves and flying dirt, straightaways a blur, and it seems perfectly natural for them to clock fast times. But other horses have that rare gift of effortless speed,
seeming to lope around the pattern with such ease that a fast time seems impossible, even after breaking the eye and presenting the evidence. “He’s very deceiving, but he turns really fast.,” said China Spring, TX, cowgirl Halyn Lide of her home-grown horse, Jettin’ Ta Heaven, better known as “Keeper.” “I have had announcers say he didn’t look like he was running and that I was going slow and easy, and I was going to need to catch up some speed. He just kind of floats through the whole thing.” Being almost taunted by announcers during their run might be enough to throw a lesser contestant off, but recounting the stories just elicits a laugh. No one seems to be more surprised at their level of success than Lide herself, especially after her dramatic co-championship at the Denver National Western Stock Show Rodeo (NWSS) in January. After fighting their way through the bracket, Lide and Keeper ran a 14.73 in the finals to tie with four-time WPRA World Champion Hailey Kinsel and “Sister.” That’s not to say Lide hasn’t always known Keeper was special. She’s just more surprised that life and circumstances have blessed her with this opportunity. She had never been to Denver and wasn’t even going to enter this year if it meant driving alone. It was only after her sister-in-law agreed to make the trip with her that she entered up and proceeded to go one-for-one at the NWSS. Out of her high school and college rodeo horse, Zeros Gypsy Jet,
until fall, with her two children along for the ride. “They like it. They have a good time,” said Lide when asked what her kids thought of rodeo life. “There’s enough other kids that they meet up at the rodeos and they get to play in hospitality. They’re kind of feral, so it works for them.” Growing up in Waco, Lide’s father was in the cattle business, but her family didn’t rodeo. She just wanted to be a cowgirl to help out her dad, and cowgirls rode horses. She started lessons young and dabbled in western pleasure until one day she saw girls running barrels and knew that’s what she wanted to do. Now is her chance to give her own children a taste of the rodeo life she never knew as she chases down Keeper’s full potential. The life they live on the road is very much in the moment, going wherever the rodeo trail takes them, and it is by no means an easy one. She’s had to learn on the fly how to manage the travel, the rodeo scheduling, the children and a superstar horse with his own special set of “quirks.” “He’s kind of gotten weirder as he’s gotten older,” said Lide of Keeper. “I can haul him by himself if I’m just going for a day, but if I’m going to put him in a stall, he’s going to be looking for his friend. So, I typically take another horse. “I’ve never hauled a pony or anything for him, because I don’t want to have to do that,” said Lide with a laugh, “In my head I’m like, ‘I’m not doing that.’ So I just take a full-grown horse instead. It’s basically the same thing.” It’s all part of Lide’s evolution as rodeo contestant, all centered on Keeper’s development and well-being. He’s a connection to her past being shared with her future, clocking times faster than he seems to have any right to. So for Lide, the plan in 2024 is simple: go harder and longer. As long as Keeper stays sound and loves what he’s doing, she’s happy to be along for the ride. It was definitely a horse race this year at the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo and when the dust had settled there were two tied atop the leaderboard – Halyn Lide (shown above) and four-time world champion Hailey Kinsel. Lide riding Keeper and Kinsel aboard Sister both finished with a time of 14.73 to share the title. Photo by Greg Westfall (Ric Andersen photography)
and sired by JL Dash Ta Heaven, Keeper is a 12-year-old gelding who “loves the barrels more than anything,” according to Lide. Her husband Aaron, a practicing veterinarian and “semi-retired” saddle bronc rider, started Keeper when the gelding was two. “After the second ride, he told me, ‘This one’s a keeper,’ and that’s the name that stuck,” recalled Lide. “He wanted to be broke from day one. He did whatever we wanted him to do and was super confident. Just knew everything.” As the years went by, Lide and Keeper ventured further from home. After her rookie year in 2018, she started going out for a few weeks at a time during the summer before returning home to regroup. She quickly realized the trips home were holding her back, so last summer she hit the road in late June and stayed gone
Halyn Lide of China Spring, TX, and her home-grown horse Jettin’ Ta Heaven were firing on all cylinders in January at the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo in Denver. After making their way through the bracket format, they found themselves not only making the final round but finishing in a tie for the title with Hailey Kinsel and Sister. Photo by C Bar Photography
20 WPRA NEWS MARCH 2024
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