Shaya Biever, topped her weekend off at the Daines Ranch Pro Rodeo in Innisfail, Alberta, Canada, June 14­-16, 2024, after having a stellar breakaway roping run in 1.6-seconds—which broke the arena record. The previous arena record was a 1.78-second run, turned in by Canada’s Kendal Pierson in 2021.

That quick run earned the Claresholm, Alberta, cowgirl the rodeo win with $1,861.20 added to her earnings and a new personal best fast time added to her resume. Biever is now sitting fourth in the Maple Leaf Circuit standings with $2,995.08 in circuit earnings.

“At a ProRodeo, yes, that’s a personal fast time,” said Biever, 24, the 2023 Canadian Finals Rodeo Breakaway Roping Champion. “At the Patriot [Event] in Fort Worth one year, I won a round with a 1.5, but as far as ProRodeo goes, yes, that is a personal best.It’s pretty surreal, honestly. I’ve gone pretty fast in the past, I guess, and have kind of hit all your times—1.8, 1.9.

“I drew a good calf that I knew was stronger, and I was like, ‘If I can get her caught it will probably break my rope off fast.’ It was really fast.”

Daines Ranch Pro Rodeo Results

1. Shaya Biever, 1.6 seconds, $1861.20
2. Kendal Pierson, 1.9, $1706.10
3. Brooke Pomeranz, 2.0, Jessie Armstrong, 2.0, $1395.90
4. Brittany Schuk, 2.1, Lawrie Saunders, 2.1, Lakota Bird, 2.1, Bradi Whiteside, 2.1, $801.35
5. Bobbi Henderson, 2.2, Keely Pugh, 2.2, Chelsea Moore, 2.2, $258.50

Setting the Scene

A lot of things need to go right when setting an arena record and, for Biever, that’s just what happened.

“My game plan pretty much stays the same no matter where I go: I ride in there and I’m just focusing on seeing my start and just roping the calf,” said Biever, the 2023 SMS Equipment Pro Tour champion. “I had zero intentions to go that fast. I just backed in and took a big breath.

“The barrier is set up pretty short there every year,” Biever continued. “The girl that ran my calf before me told me it was a bit stronger in the pens, so I knew I could kind of take a roll at the start. All I was focused on was seeing it and going, then next thing I knew the shot was there and I took it. Before I knew it, it was over.”

WPRA Rookie Shaya Biever Wins 2023 Canadian Finals Rodeo Breakaway

What initially set up Biever’s game plan was being a tick off the barrier in the slack to split fifth at the Stavley (Alberta) Pro Rodeo two days prior with a 2.3-second run, adding $915.33 to her earnings, to roping at Innisfail, Alberta.

“That run, I was a little bit off the barrier there, but it was a good calf; we made it work out,” Biever said. “My plan for Innisfail was I was just going to make sure that I knew my start a little bit better so I wasn’t out of it so much.”

No Stirrup, No Flag, No Problem

When making a run that fast, there’s not much time to thinkso when Biever threw all her rope and lost her right stirrup, she it was hardly phased.

“Honestly, I have so many photos of me without my stirrup. At this point I’m just starting to wonder if I should elastic my foot in. I don’t know why I always lose that stirrup. I remember my shot. I remember roping. I just remember that I threw so far that my rope was just gone. I had no slack, and I was just like, ‘Well, I really hope my horse is stopping.’”

Handily, Biever’s black horse LQ Badgers Thor did stop, which made for a quick break of her rope from the saddle horn. But in that stop, Biever was sitting on her breakaway rope flag. So, when her rope broke free from her saddle horn, her flag was sitting under her leg.

The flag is tied on to the end of a breakaway rope to ensure that the flaggers and judges can see when the rope breaks from the saddle to give breakaway ropers a time.

“I literally just bought that flag because it’s nice, neon bright and I just sat on it, and it didn’t even come off with my rope,” Biever said. “The flaggers are really on the ball with how big breakaway is getting and how fast it’s going, so they’re looking.”

Fast Like a Bullet

With how fast the breakaway roping can get, having a horse that scores sharp, runs hard and stops quick is vital, and Biever has all of that in her 17-year-old black gelding, which many know as “Black Horse” or “Bullet.”

“He is my heart horse forever; I don’t think I’ll ever find one like him,” Biever said of the horse she bought as a 3-year-old. “He is lightning fast, but as fast as he is, he shuts off a rope faster than any horse I’ve ever ridden. You don’t have to be pulling. He just knows when he needs to be shutting down. He knows the move before I know the move, so if I’m a little behind, he’s got me covered. I can trust him inside and out, whether it’s a long score or a short score, he’s always with me and he makes up the time.”

With so much confidence in Bullet, Biever is free to be arena-record-aggressive in her run.

“He’s very cool and he’s easy to throw all your trust into him,” Biever said. “Every time I back in there, I’m not worried about him; I’m worried about what I need to see because once I drop my hand, there’s no going back. You’re committed.”

Shaya Biever’s ProRodeo Season

While the June 14-15 weekend gave her a jump in the Maple Leaf Circuit standings to fourth with $2,995.08 won at the Canadian rodeos, as of June 18, 2024, Biever is currently inside the top 50 of the 2024 WPRA Breakaway Roping World Standings with $13,322.05 after starting her ProRodeo season in the United States.

“I started my season in Fort Worth and San Antonio, and it wasn’t bad,” she said. “I got one check out of both, but it definitely could have gone better.”

5 Things to Know About Canadian Rookie Shaya Biever

To keep the momentum rolling, Biever, who also had some luck at Oklahoma’s Guymon Pioneer Days this spring, is entered up at a handful of Maple Leaf Circuit rodeos and then will bounce around between rodeos in the States.

“We have a four-rodeo weekend this coming weekend,” she said ahead of the June 21 run. “We go to Sundre, Alberta; High River (Alberta); Bassano (Alberta) and Wainwright (Alberta). Then we actually make an all-night drive to Reno (Rodeo) and then come back to hit two Canadian rodeos. Then we hopefully go back to the Reno short go. Then I have about seven rodeos to hit on the Fourth run. But we’ll go back and forth a bit now—it’s quite a bit of driving.”

Shaya Biever’s 2024 ProRodeo Season Results

Guymon Pioneer Days Rodeo

• Average: 3^rd, 5.5 seconds on two, worth $2,329
• Round 2: 1^st, 2.3-second run, worth $2,100

San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo

• Bracket 3, Round 3: 1^st (tie), 1.7-second run, worth $2,250

Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo

• Bracket 3, Round 2: 1^st, 2.2-second run, worth $2,000

• Grande Prairie Stampede (SMS Equipment Pro Tour)

• 5th (Tie), 2.5-second run, worth $982.30

Handhills Lake

• 7^th, 2.9-second run, worth 364.25

• Lea Park Rodeo (SMS Equipment Pro Tour)

• 6^th (Tie), 3.0-second run, worth $705

Shaya Beiver’s Hauling Pards

Biever has collected a few traveling partners to kick of the first long drive to Reno, Nevada.

“Fortunately, I think this is the most abundance of traveling partners I’ve had this year going to Reno. I’ve picked up some team ropers, another breakaway roper.”

After Reno, Biever will mainly travel with Macy Auclair, a fellow Maple Leaf Circuit breakaway roper.

“She’s been going back and forth a little bit, too. Prior to that, I was sort of in the rig with Kendal Pierson, but she is in the rig with Bradi (Good) and Shelby (Boisjoli-Meged). She still comes up for the Canadian rodeos, so we try to jump in the rig as much as we can. Mainly, my buddy group will be Macy for the month of July with how many rodeos there are back and forth.”

Reflecting on Growth of the Sport

Before the Biever discovered she was a breakaway roper at heart, she was throwing loops in the team roping.

“I was a team roper forever and I really could have cared less about breakaway roping,” she said. “I started out about like everybody in high school rodeo because I had a horse and my dad said, ‘Why not enter.’”

It took Biever until her second year of college—she’s a Vernon (Texas) College graduate with an associate’s degree in science and in farm and ranch management—to really find her niche in breakaway roping.

“I went down there for the first year and I pretty much still wanted to be a team roper, but somewhere within the second year my coach helped me out a lot with it and I started to like it and like the process of it. Then I got good at it, and it just spun around for me.

“Around the same time, [the sport] got huge, so I just put more of my energy into breakaway instead of team roping.  It’s a faster paced event and you just rely on yourself. There’s a lot of variables, but there’s just not as many variables.”

Full Circle Moment

Biever’s first Canadian Finals Rodeo (CFR) qualification was in 2022, which is a memorable year.

“It’s kind of funny because the first year I made the CFR, it was a decade before that that my brother Logan Biever made the CFR riding steers. It’s kind of a cool feeling because I can remember being there thinking, ‘You’re going to have to be a barrel racer if you ever want to compete.’ Then breakaway started getting big.”

Biever is proud of the way her home country has been fostering that growth.

“Canada has done a great job of just monitoring the sport and getting us money and getting us into a lot of rodeos and making it big for us.”

Shaya Biever’s Goal Setting and Opportunities

Ahead of her 2024 season in the Maple Leaf Circuit and beyond, Biever set some personal goals.

“My two most important goals are to qualify for the CFR and do my best to qualify for the Tour Finals in the States,” said Biever, who’s currently 33^rd in the 2024 Playoff Series Breakaway Roping with 95.75 points.

Additionally, she is also set to compete at the Calgary Stampede after finishing fourth in the 2023 Maple Leaf Circuit standings.

“We get invited to Calgary through the standings, so I get to go to that this year. This year, I happened to get rolled up to go to the NFR Open*. Competing in Calgary and the NFR Open, it’s a lot more opportunities I get to do this year, so I’m pretty excited for that.”

*[Editor’s note: Two top Maple Leaf Circuit ropers were ineligible to compete at the NFR Open in 2024, opening the door for Biever from the No. 4 position in the standings.]

Maple Leaf Circuit Breakaway Roping Standings  (June 18, 2024)

1. Bradi Whiteside, Longview, Alberta, $6,184.62
2. Lakota Bird, Nanton, Ablerta, $3,976.33
3. Kendal Pierson, Wardlow, Alberta, $3,449.21
4. Shaya Biever, Claresholm, Alberta, $2,995.08
5. Jenna Dallyn, Nanton, Alberta, $1,793.91
6. Caitlyn Dahm, Destin, Florida, $1,729.16
7. Macy Auclair, Ponoka, Alberta, $1,528.09
8. Jessie Armstrong, Big Valley, Alberta, $1,492.25
9. Quinn Leslie, High Nanton, Alberta, $658.59
10. Darby Wilkinson, Arrowwood, Alberta, $34.66