Ponoka, Alberta’s Macy Auclair’s 2024 season peaked roping at the Canadian Finals Rodeo, held at Edmonton, Alberta’s Rogers Place Oct. 2-5 this year, where she finished the season with $41,604.05 and the coveted Canadian Championship breakaway roping title.
“It’s definitely very rewarding,” said Auclair, who owns a boutique called Rae 1976. “I had said in previous interviews when everything was really fresh that I was just really happy to be there, but I think I maybe low-balled myself when I talked about how it felt because that win, or all of those wins, those were runs that I prepared myself for. I showed up and I did what I planned on doing, and I’m really glad that I was able to execute that.”
CFR average champ
As the only roper to capture all five calves, Auclair was crowned the CFR breakaway roping average champion with a time of 11.1 seconds, adding $6,750 to her earnings.
“I never even thought breakaway was going to be where it’s at, and for me to be able to do that and to be able to do it on my horse that I have is just, I’m still speechless about it,” Auclair said.
Auclair kicked off the CFR with a 1.8-second run to win Round 1, worth $5,850. In Round 2, she roped her calf in 2.8-seconds to place fifth for $600.
“It was really exciting after the first two rounds that I made it work,” Auclair said. “It definitely wasn’t pretty. I just kind of put it on him. I didn’t feel super confident in the way that I was roping.”
Auclair found the assurance she needed before backing in the box for Round 3 with a FaceTime call with six-time World Champion calf roper Cody Ohl, who was posted up through the phone screen to rope the dummy with her.
“He was in front of my dummy while I was roping, and we just tweaked things and then everything was sharp after that,” Auclair said of her mentor.
Auclair then prevailed in Round 3, backing into the box with Taylor Swift’s song, “22,” blasting through the arena to celebrate her 22nd birthday on the night she broke the arena and Canadian record with a 1.5-second run, clinching another round win and a check for $5,850.
“I was clapping my hands, but I had no idea what my time was,” she said. “I finally I saw it on the screen and then that’s when I did my little fist pump. I didn’t even realize, and then in my interview [with Cowboy Channel], they said it was a Canadian record. Then it all hit me.”
Even her victory lap that night was a win.
“My hat had popped up, and I knew it was coming off, and I was like, ‘You know what? I held my hat down the last two victory laps that I’ve ever had in my life, I’m not doing it again.’ I waved that sucker around, and I think my dad was almost more proud of that than he was of my run.”
Auclair’s longest time was a 3.2-second run in Round 4, putting her fifth in the round, worth $600. She then came back in Round 5 and split the round win with her traveling partner and friend, Jessi Everett, with both ropers turning in 1.8-second runs, worth $5,100 each.
“Watching Jessi be 1.8, I had to remind myself that I still had to rope,” Auclair said. “I was so pumped up for her. My hands were numb from clapping, and I said to Jesse after, ‘I actually didn’t mean to, not necessarily take the win away from you, I just didn’t really mean to be 1.8.’
“We definitely have had highs and lows in the year and had some battles, and we had some people doubt us this year also,” Auclair continued about her and Jessi’s season. “Being able to crack out and be on the top, and in the average, and in the whole nation, and then in the last round, it really felt nice to be able to really execute. Especially with a girl like Jessi; we pushed each other all year long.”
Firing a $5 ‘Pistol’
Auclair roped of Smoken Mirroredimage—a 15-year-old bay mare called “Pistol”—who has been instrumental to Auclair’s career.
“They say that you know your horse really good,” Auclair said. “That horse knows me, really. Anytime you see her short me, it’s because she knows when I’m about to throw, and she knows when I should be throwing. I qualified to my first and second CFRs on her, and now [I’ve won] my first Canadian title.”
Auclair unconventionally won the mare in a raffle held to raise money for the North County Junior Rodeo. Golden Quarter Horses donate a filly to be raffled off each year, and Auclair purchased one $5 ticket.
“I remember the moment,” Auclair reminisced. “I was in the living room, and I begged my parents to let me buy the last ticket. My dad said yes, so I ran to my room and pulled five bucks out of my piggy bank and got my name on the card.”
Auclair’s dad, Scott, finished the mare. It wasn’t until the mare was 6 years old and Auclair was in a pinch that she jump-rode Pistol who, in that moment, turned into her best breakaway roping horse.
“We were at an amateur rodeo and my dad was roping on my good bay that I had at the time—‘Chex,’” Auclair said. “He had come up sore right before the breakaway roping. My dad was like, ‘You can either get on Pistol and try, or you can borrow another horse. I just got on her and she had never been through a barrier or anything, and I ended up being 2.6 on her in one rodeo and I never got off of her.”
Setting goals
For Auclair, making her Canadian Championship a reality began with writing out her goals in her Notes app on her phone so she can mark goals off her list.
“Every year I make myself a list of goals: very achievable goals and then big goals, also, that I’m going to work towards [that don’t] exactly have to be in that year,” Auclair said. “I normally have it as my lock screen on my phone. It’s just something that I see every time I open up my phone. I do a lot of, I wouldn’t necessarily call it manifesting, but along those lines. I speak a lot of it into existence.
“Whatever you say out loud, you have to believe it before you ever think that it’s going to happen,” she continued. “I had mentioned a few times that I was going to win Canada. That was my biggest goal. A smaller goal was that I was going to win the round on my birthday.”
Breakaway’s CFR50 debut
The Canadian Pro Rodeo Association and CFR stepped up to include the top 12 breakaway ropers in all five rounds of the CFR for the first time in 2024.
“Growing up, I never would have ever dreamt to be in the breakaway roping at CFR,” Auclair said. “This year, we honestly felt like we were a major event. Everyone treated our event like we were royalty.”
Auclair had always dreamed of being at the CFR, but before breakaway roping was ever a thought, she dreamed of being the first girl to qualify to the CFR in the team roping.
“That is how far-fetched the breakaway roping seemed to be in CFR,” Auclair said. “I even said to myself, ‘What would it be like if we got to rope in all of the rounds? That would be really cool.’ To have them step it up for us and really be able to include us is just absolutely amazing.”
Auclair cannot say enough about the growth of the sport and the event that the CFR put on for the first time at Rogers Place.
“They did such an amazing job for their first year having it,” she said. “It was just a really full circle moment. I remember watching my dad (a three-time CFR qualifier—once in the bull riding and twice in the heeling). Getting a video sent to me of my parents’ reaction after being 1.5 and just having him in the stands, it was a full circle moment.”
Canadian Finals Rodeo 2024 results
Canadian Champion Breakaway Roper
Macy Auclair
CFR 50 Average Champion
Macy Auclair: 11.1 seconds on five head, $6,750
Canadian Pro Rodeo Breakaway Roping Standings
- Macy Auclair – $41,604.05
- Jessi Everett – $35,341.77
- Lawrie Saunders – $29,144.08
- Jenna Dallyn – $27,816.86
- Mikenna Schauer – $27,203.74
- Bradi Whiteside – $26,644.32
- Lakota Bird – $22,539.86
- Kylie Whiteside – 22,186.90
- Bobbi Henderson – $18,828.88
- Shaya Biever – $15,741.43
- Brooke Pomeranz – $15,583.39
- Caitlyn Dahm – $15,035.47
—— BRJ ——
