Shane Hanchey says growing up he didn’t want to practice roping very much, until his brother got a red horse named Reata.
In 2004, when Reata was just 4-years-old, Hanchey’s brother won the Jackson Pro Rodeo on him. Two years later, Shane got on for the first time at age 16 at an open roping in Florida. He won the whole thing.
“I ain’t never one nothing in my life, won this open roping, five-header, I remember like it was yesterday,” Shane said.
Buck Daniel, who owned the horse at the time, said if Shane could find a way to get Reata back to Louisiana, he could keep him.
“Back then, I didn’t know anybody, I found a ride, flew home and February of 2006, I started devoting myself and my life to roping calfs,” he said.
Reata would go on to help Shane qualify for the National High School Finals Rodeo in 2006, 2007 and 2008, The College National Finals Rodeo in 2009 and of course, five straight National Finals Rodeos from 2010-2014.
In 2013, Hanchey and Reata were immortalized. The pair became an unstoppable duo in when they won the Wrangler Champions Challenge in California, Spanish Fork Fiesta Days in Utah, the Ellensburg Rodeo in Washington and the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo in Denver.
The season was capped off by Hanchey winning the tie-down roping World Championship, breaking Fred Whitfield’s Average record in the process.
Hanchey whole-heartedly believe Reata has the resume of one of the greatest horses of all-time thanks to being a mount at the NHSFR, CNFR and NFR. The cajun cowboy says it’s “unheard of” for a horse to bring a guy from high school rodeo all the way to a Gold Buckle.
“I just kind of developed a love for roping when I got that horse,” he said, “and I knew that horse was once in a lifetime.”
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