Wild, Wonderful, Winning Times for Team Lockett & Tsinigine

Daddy Kyle’s winning the team roping at the rodeo with Aaron Tsinigine, and three of the Lockett Six are the 2022 Reno Rodeo Wild Pony Races champs. Will Kyle try to pull yet another NFR Hail Mary rabbit out of his hat if he and Spinny close the deal in the Reno

You’ve all heard of a three-ring circus, where there’s so much going on all at the same time that you’re not really even sure where to look. Well, Kyle and Leigh Lockett’s party-of-eight traveling dog and pony shot is a six-ring circus on steroids in a motorhome at the Reno Rodeo this week, and it’s been going swimmingly so far. Daddy Kyle’s winning the team roping at the rodeo with Aaron Tsinigine, and three of the Lockett Six are the 2022 Reno Rodeo Wild Pony Races champs. Will Kyle try to pull yet another NFR Hail Mary rabbit out of his hat if he and Spinny close the deal in the Reno Rodeo short round on Saturday night?

Tsinigine and Lockett coming tight on the average lead in Reno. | Fernando Sam-Sin Photo

READ MORE: Lockett, Party of Seven: Brand New Baby Puts Finishing 16th in its Place

“Absolutely not,” said nine-time Wrangler National Finals Rodeo heeler Kyle, who’s 43 now and lives in Visalia, California with Leigh, Shayla, Georgia, Sutton, Blevins, Collins and Ledge, their baby-boy caboose who’s named after Hall of Fame Steer Roping Legend Guy Allen. “My next stop after Reno is the Bridgeport (California) Ranch Rodeo over the Fourth, then Salinas in July. My next rodeo after that will be Pendleton in September.

“It was easier to be gone with the four older kids. But (team roping) times are too fast, diesel’s too high, we have two babies at home and it’s just too hard to be gone.”

The littles have him up by sunup, so he fires up the griddle and cooks breakfast for the fam and neighboring cowboy-parking-lot cowboys each morning. Chef Kyle lights the barbecue and gets everybody fed again before the Reno perf starts each evening.

Ever heard of hell on wheels?? It’s Lockett’s idea of Heaven on earth.

“There’s a lot going on, but we load up in the motorhome, I get behind the wheel and just try to keep it between the mayonnaise and the mustard (the white and yellow highway lines) while Leigh tries to keep order in the back,” Kyle said. “Shayla and Georgia keep the babies entertained and read them books, and try to keep the two boys (Sutton and Blevins) from wrestling and tearing things up.”

Shayla’s 15, Georgia’s 13, Sutton’s 11, Blevins is 9, Collins will be 2 on September 30 and Ledge just turned five months. Georgia, Sutton and Blevins are your 2022 Reno Rodeo Wild Pony Races champs.

Blevins, Sutton and Georgia Lockett in action at the Reno Rodeo Wild Pony Races. | Fred Cornelius Photo Courtesy of Reno Rodeo

“They were short a team, Colby Camacho puts it on and he called me the middle of last week and asked if we’d be there and the kids would like to enter,” Kyle said. “I said, ‘Yeah, for sure, put ’em down.’ The Wild Pony Races are like the regular Wild Horse Race, only kids and ponies. Georgia was the anchor, Sutton was the mugger and Blevins was the rider.”

Sutton, Blevins and Georgia Lockett in the Wild Pony Races winner’s circle in Reno. | Fred Cornelius Photo Courtesy of Reno Rodeo

The Lockett kids were crowned the champs after Monday night’s fourth and final Wild Pony Races perf.

“They were a little nervous the first night, because they’d never done it before, but after the first time they thought it was fun and craved it,” said Kyle, who was back behind the bucking chutes with half his brood all four nights.

Tsinigine and Lockett are the leaders of the Reno Rodeo team roping pack with 11.2 on two steers, and so far have a half-second lead on the field. With Lockett spending Cowboy Christmas at a ranch rodeo, Tsinigine will now head for 18-year-old Oklahoma heeler Landen Glenn, who won the 2022 Hooey Jr BFI Open earlier this year with Derrick Begay’s nephew James Arviso, and also finished seventh with Arviso at last Saturday’s Resistol Reno Open. Spinny and Glenn’s first outing together was at the 2022 BFI at the Lazy E in Guthrie, Oklahoma on April 3, and they won a round.

Spinny and Lockett kickstarting their Reno Rodeo week with a 5.7-second run in slack. | Fernando Sam-Sin Photo

READ MORE: One on One with Aaron Tsinigine

“Since I got serious about rodeoing, I’ve always roped with a veteran—Kyle Lockett, Clay Cooper, Kory Koontz, Ryan Motes, Walt Woodard, Patrick Smith, Kinney Harrell, Caleb Twisselman—and all my partners took care of me,” said Tsinigine, who’s 34 now and calls Tuba City, Arizona home. “All the guys I liked roping with are retiring, so now the table’s turned. I went from roping with veterans to now me being the veteran on the team. It sure happened fast. I went from following their lead to having to take the lead. Here I am the veteran. This is a first for me.”