Renowned barrel racer recalls a lifetime of horsemanship

The Daily Inter Lake

Cowgirl calling

Long rows of ribbons in Fay Haynes' arena west of Pablo and a house full of trophies and belt buckles are the visual reminders of Haynes' winning ways with horses.

Not as obvious but just as solid is the 82-year-old's undying passion for horses still today and an innate ability to match horses to people. Young riders still seek her out. She helps them learn to ride, evaluates their horses and simply knows how the two will connect.

More than seven decades of riding and rodeoing have taught Haynes the lessons she still willingly shares. In the Western Montana rodeo world, her accomplishments are legendary.

HAYNES WAS 5 years old when she rode her first horse, a little gray mare named Dolly. Her father was fixing fence on their ranch at Niarada, and as he got off to walk the fence line, Dolly began to romp and tried to shake off the young girl.

But Haynes held on.

"I didn't fall off, and I remember thinking, 'Boy, I'm a cowboy.'"

She would spend the next several decades hanging on to horses, maneuvering them around barrels at rodeo after rodeo. Haynes plunged headlong into horsemanship.

She was working as a secretary for a rodeo in Polson in 1950 when a bull and saddle-bronc rider, Bill Haynes, caught her eye.

"Gee, that's kind of a good-looking guy," she remembers thinking.

He was a quiet sort, focused on being a cowboy, but she won his heart and the two married in December 1951.

Together they formed a partnership, buying, breaking and selling hundreds of horses and raising cattle on their 3,000-acre Big Bend Ranch west of Ronan over the next two decades. The couple bought the ranch from fellow horseman Bud Lake, who allowed them to log some of the land for the $10,000 down payment.

Haynes remembers the hard work, rotating two-hour shifts during cold winter nights as calving season began. In the middle of the night she'd head to the corral to retrieve newborns and bring them in from the cold. As she crawled back in bed, Bill got up for his shift.

IN THE early 1950s, when Wild Horse Island on Flathead Lake was still privately owned by retired New York osteopath J.C. "Doc" Burnett, Bill Haynes was hired to break horses on the island. Those were great years for the Hayneses, in their element as they worked a herd that in 1954 included more than 100 range horses.

Fay Haynes detailed the early history of Wild Horse Island in an expansive piece she wrote for Western Horseman magazine in 1965. The couple, along with Guy Clatterbuck, who operated a guest ranch on the west shore of Flathead Lake near Rollins, rode on the very last roundup when the decision was made to cut the herd by half.

"This was truly an unforgettable experience," Haynes wrote in the Western Horseman article. "Gathering the horses, cutting them out, turning those back on the island that were to stay, and loading the rest on the barge - 49 head of them, and three saddle horses.

"The wild ones were almost frightened to death, but rode safely to shore near Elmo, where they were corralled and loaded on trucks to go to Missoula and the sale ring."

Wild Horse Island eventually was bought by the state of Montana to be preserved as habitat not only for wild horses but for bighorn sheep. Haynes considers herself lucky to have been a part of the early-day history.

"We who rode there can still vision those beautiful horses running wild and free, and remember all the good times we had on the roundups," she wrote in the same article. "Where else on Earth is there such a setting as this?"

Haynes penned a half-dozen articles for a national quarter-horse journal through the years, further establishing herself as a noteworthy horsewoman.

Her renowned American Quarter Horse, Jule Bar, was a true champion, and together the two cleaned up at barrel-racing competitions.

The stallion was very well bred, coming from one of the greatest foundation sires in quarter-horse history.

Haynes had Jule Bar for eight years until he died in a fire when fireworks ignited his stable at a rodeo grounds in Missoula on July 4, 1968. The loss was devastating, but Haynes went on barrel racing with two more generations of Jule Bar's offspring - his son Jumpy Jule and grandson Breeze.

IN 1972, the couple bought a ranch west of Pablo, where Haynes still resides. Bill died just two years after they'd acquired the new land and built a home together, and Haynes never remarried.

Life is laid back at her rural abode where the grandeur of the Mission Mountains rises to the east. A small herd of horses graze in the pastures these days. Haynes is still an active horse trader, matching horses to new owners.

Riders stop by to practice roping a couple of times a week at her arena, seeking advice from Haynes about how to shave a second or two off their barrel-racing time.

Though the pace of her life has slowed, she's still living it on her terms - quietly, independently and with horses.