The Virden Indoor Rodeo and Wild West Daze has established a Horseman’s Hall of Fame to honor local horseman who have made an outstanding contribution to the equine industry as breeders, competitors, committee members and in countless other ways.

This year’s inductee is Shawne Hagan.

As a youngster, Shawne grew up envisioning life as a cowboy. That is what he became – daily using horses while managing the cattle on his ranch. In the beginning he started out showing horses at local fairs and entering gymkhanas. His desire to be a roper led to him practicing on his dad’s cattle even when he wasn’t supposed to.

Now days any young person wanting to get involved in rodeo has ample opportunity to learn from the many accomplished competitors in this area. But when Shawne started out it was much different as he was one of only a few trail blazers in this area. To begin with he entered close to home – Miniota and Oak Lake rodeos. In his early years he spent weekends competing in rodeos in Manitoba and Saskatchewan with calf roping his main event.

In 1976 he became a member of the Manitoba Rodeo Cowboys Association and began competing at 20 to 30 of their sanctioned rodeos each year – in calf roping and steer wrestling. In the late seventies, MRCA began holding their finals in Brandon, with the top 10 in each event qualifying. Shawne qualified for that finals and continued to reach that mark for most of the next 20 years.

When the Virden Indoor Rodeo started in 1989, Shawn was one of the many people involved with the production of this event in its formative years. Shawne says one of the highlights of his rodeo career was twice winning calf roping here at his home town rodeo.

When the PMU industry expanded, Shawne became a producer. He continued that enterprise for 15 years raising quarter horses and draft horses.

In 2009, the first of 13 yearly Hagan Horse sales was held. Shawne and each of his sons, Alistair and Thomas and their wives, each consigned a select number of quality ranch horses. The sale was supported by buyers from across Canada and into the U.S. The sale horses were ones they had used in their every day ranch work, with a few competition horses added in.

As his calf roping days began coming to a close Shawne switched to team roping, often with his sons as partners. At this year’s rodeo, Shawn is partnered with his grandson Slade. After 50 years of roping – it doesn’t get any better than that.

In the carriage with Shawne are his wife Joceyln, and their grandchildren.

Congratulations Shawne on being inducted into the Virden Indoor Rodeo Horseman’s Hall of Fame. The award was crafted by Kelly Lyng and is being presented by Lonnie Brown

Thank-you to the Flower Attic and Gifts for donating Shawns boutineer.

Thank-you to the Gompf Family for providing the team and carriage for our presentation. This outfit was originally Garnet Gompf’s until his passing.