Tie-Down Roper Hanchey Sees Big Things in Rodeo’s Near Future
By: Kendra Santos
The PBR and the World Champions Rodeo Alliance (WCRA) have teamed up for a weekend of Western sports action in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on May 31-June 2. Between the two days of competition at the Green Bay Invitational, the WCRA will hold its second major of 2019 with the Titletown Stampede. For more WCRA content, visit wcrarodeo.com.
He’s still just 29, but 2013 World Champion Tie-down Roper Shane Hanchey has plenty of perspective regarding progress in professional rodeo. His $50,000 windfall win at the January 11 Windy City Roundup in Chicago confirmed every hope and dream he had about the World Champions Rodeo Alliance, and what it might mean when it comes to moving the needle in the cowboy sport.
Hanchey’s roped at the last nine straight Wrangler National Finals Rodeos—2010-18—since earning Resistol Rookie of the Year honors as a professional rodeo freshman in 2009. But he’s been around the block enough to know that even at the highest level there are booms and busts. As hard as he tried, Hanchey earned $44,269 in 10 days of trials and tribulations at Rodeo’s Super Bowl in Vegas.
Not a bad work week in any occupation, but it took a year of long and winding roads up and down the dusty rodeo trail to get there. And everyone knows that the net on a professional rodeo cowboy’s profit margin can be mighty slim when the accountant hammers out his bottom line after expenses. Fact is, income taxes have not historically been much of a factor for most rodeo cowboys.
“I went to the NFR with high hopes, and it didn’t work out the way I wanted it to this time,” said Louisiana native Hanchey, who all told had a $180,847 2018 Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association season after finishing 10th in the world. “I spent 15 days in Vegas to win a little over $40,000. It was disappointing, and it took the wind out of me. I will still pretty sick about it when we pulled into Chicago less than 30 days later.”
His first big decision was which horse to load. He was actually contemplating taking a second- or third-stringer.
“About three days before Chicago, Taylor (Shane’s NFR barrel racer girlfriend, Taylor Jacob) said, ‘$50,000 is a lot of money in one day—you sure you don’t want to ride Bam Bam?” Hanchey said. “I told her I didn’t think he needed to make the trip all the way to Chicago. Then I got to thinking more about it, and figured if I could win $50,000 in one day I should do it. So Bam Bam and (Tuf Cooper’s main-mount mare) Topaz rode to Chicago together.
“Winning the Windy City Roundup rejuvenated me. It gave me confidence I’d lost the month before.”
If you’ve been around Hanchey for five minutes, you know he’s a sports fanatic. So though the WCRA $1 million major only lasted a day, he made the most of it.
“I made a point to go to Wrigley Field,” he said. “It was only 15 degrees outside, but I’m a huge sports fan, so I had to see it.”
The next stop for Hanchey’s pre-perf warm-ups was the Sluggers batting cage, where he handled some pretty intense curveballs. He worked up an appetite the hard way, and leave it to the guy with a jockey’s waistline to then dive head first into a decadent, Chicago-style deep-dish pizza called The Man Bod at Dimo’s Pizza in Wrigleyville.
Winning Chicago punched Hanchey and the rest of the Windy City Roundup champs’ tickets to the WCRA’s $1 million Titletown Stampede—which will play out June 1 at the Resch Center in Green Bay, Wisconsin—and also the following $1 million major after that. Hanchey’s never been to Green Bay before, either, but is already planning out some extracurricular adventures beyond the arena.
“I’ve got to go see Lambeau Field,” he said. “You don’t have to be a Packers fan to know what that’s all about. The man, Vince Lombardi, coached the Packers. There’s a lot of sports history in that city, too. I’ll definitely go there when we’re in town for the rodeo.
“We’ve been looking for venues and cities like Chicago, Illinois, and Green Bay, Wisconsin, where we can rope for $50,000 in one day. Our other big-money opportunities take spans of time and multiple runs to have any chance. Nominating rodeos (using the WCRA’s Virtual Rodeo Qualifier system) to have a chance to rope against eight other guys for this kind of money is a no brainer. For me to get to rope in the next three million-dollar rodeos is like getting to show up at (Rodeo)Houston three years in a row, and automatically going straight to the short round. That’s big.”
Hanchey has huge, high hopes for how the WCRA can—and will—raise the rodeo bar.
“You’ve got to tip your hat to the people behind the WCRA who are making a push for this new money coming into our sport that we’ve never had a chance to win before,” he said. “The guys behind the WCRA see our sport like we do—as a real professional sport. With the new money being generated outside the cowboys’ pockets its not far from the radar to think that we will reach the point where we have a shot at PBR-caliber endorsements. Great events with big-time TV coverage generate a lot of contestant benefits.
“It’s now possible that the time is coming when we won’t have to beat the trail down 10 months out of the year to make real money rodeoing. The WCRA stuck their neck out to get this going, and from everything we’ve seen so far this format and this financial opportunity is a winner for all involved.”
Content courtesy of WCRA.
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