Out West Events 2025 | Conquering All: The Zancanellas

South Dakota family’s interests run from rodeoing and breeding horses to stallion incentives and mentoring young ropers 

Matt and Kristen Zancanella burn the candle at both ends.  

The Aurora, South Dakota couple juggles horses, rodeo, three businesses, and their kids’ activities. 

And they keep all the balls in the air.  

They and their family own the stallion Lions Share of Fame, “King,” who they purchased as a yearling after he no-saled at the Heritage Place sale. The family planned to raise and train barrel racing, team roping and steer wrestling horses with the bloodlines for excellence.  

They saw Dash Ta Fame horses winning, but their price tag was out of reach. 

“We couldn’t afford to buy the colts we wanted to ride,” Zanc said. “So we decided to buy the stud.”  

Zanc, as he is nicknamed, sold his heel horse he had just ridden at the 2004 National Finals Rodeo, to buy King. Kristen rode King for 90 days, then the horse was sent to Oklahoma to Matt’s sisters, Bryel and ReAnn, in Coleman, who trained him.  

They bred him as a two-year-old, anxious to get babies out of him. They also futuritied him in his four-year-old year in the barrels. He was talented in the barrel pen and won about $50,000, but he often dragged the second barrel over, missing out on some really big payouts.  

But King’s greatest success has been as a stallion. Kristen rides all of his babies, and the Kings are the best. 

“I ride some outside horses, and I really don’t like starting anything else (but King colts.) The Kings are so easy. They rarely buck, are super easy, have talent, and are really good.”  

King’s colts are versatile, as well. “They’re good at anything you tell them to do,” Kristen said, from barrel racing to steer wrestling, hazing, roping, even one as a hunter jumper.  

They seem to mature a bit later than other horses, Zanc said, meaning they don’t always succeed at the futurities. “Sometimes they’re starting to get good at six or seven, and finally grown up at seven or eight,” he said. “They’re late bloomers and go on to make really nice rodeo horses.”  

They’ve sold some of their horses, but their main customers are themselves: Zanc and Kristen, their kids, Keylee and Max, and Zanc’s sisters, Bryel and ReAnn and Bryel’s husband, Sean Mulligan, an NFR steer wrestler.  

“We’ve sold some,” Kristen said, “but our primary focus has been us. We always competed on them.” 

And Kristen starts them all. “I love horses and could spend all day with them. I can’t get enough. They’re my buddies and I don’t want to send them off to anybody.”  

Horses with the Lions Share of Fame pedigree include ones ridden by team ropers Jr Dees and Coleman Proctor; steer wrestlers Tyler Pearson and Tanner Brunner; and barrel racer Kassie Mowry, among others.  

In addition to the horses, Zanc is the founder and president of ProEarth Animal Health, all natural supplements. ProEarth’s products raise the pH level in animals’ digestive systems and eliminate stress. Their two biggest products are CattlActive and Zesterra. All of ProEarth’s products are natural and have been proven, with clinical studies, to heal ulcers and correct the pH balance in the bodies of horses or cattle.  

ProEarth products are sold in 1,000 farm and ranch stores across the country. 

Zanc has a new product that will be distributed soon: water pucks that release CattlActive into water tanks, so as they drink, cattle get a dose of the supplement.  

The company has supplements for humans, too, called BodypHocus. Studies have shown that BodypHocus lowers cholesterol, decreases heartburn and allergies, and even helps kids with acne.  

“Everything starts in our gut,” Matt said. “Get the pH right and things stay healthier.” 

He’s enthusiastic for the human products.  

“We’re excited about the people end of it. Unlike horses, a person can tell you how they feel. We may think our horse feels better (after taking a ProEarth product), but a person knows it.”  

If that wasn’t enough to keep them busy, Zancanellas, along with Levi and Lindsey O’Keefe, created the Royal Crown, a stallion incentive for barrel racing and roping. 

Slots for one hundred stallions, for the barrels and for roping, are enrolled. Each spot comes with a junior sire and a senior sire. 

Zanc is proud of the Royal Crown and its payout; last year it paid out a combined $1.87 million across three events: Buckeye, Arizona in February, Guthrie, Oklahoma in May, and Rock Springs, Wyoming in August. He has added a Canadian Royal Crown, with events in Claresholm, Alberta in May and Ponoka, Alberta in September.  

The Royal Crown helps with valuing colts out of enrolled stallions, including Lions Share of Fame. “The Royal Crown has helped the horse business,” Zanc said. “We sell a lot more baby colts now, instead of having to keep them and break them.” 

Another invention came about due to a Zancanella project.  

At the Royal Crown barrel racings, Zanc uses a drag to work the ground called an Outlaw Drag. Invented by him, it’s a combination of a Black Widow drag and a Ground Hog. “You can really dig your ground with this,” he said. “Sometimes there will be a hard pan on the back side of the barrel, and it’s hard to get it dug. That’s why we came up with this. It’s something we can dig better with, and it will still level the dirt.” Outlaw Drags is based in Las Cruces, New Mexico. 

And on top of all of this, Zanc still finds time to team rope. 

Twenty years ago, he was roping nationwide, competing at the National Finals Rodeo three times (2002-2004). 

Now he stays closer to home, in his circuit. He chooses to rodeo with young ropers that he can mentor and put on his horses.  

“I usually get a young header who wants to learn and needs help,” he said. In the past, he’s heeled for Jr Dees (who spent a lot of his childhood with Matt and Kristen), Bubba Buckaloo, Colby Siddoway, Braden Pirrung, Clay Holtz, and Payton Pirrung, among others.  

He helps them as they begin pro rodeo competition. “There’s a lot to it,” he said, “entering, driving, making sure you enter right.” But he feels his biggest contribution of knowledge is horses.  

“The biggest thing I try to help my headers with is horsemanship. I’m big on head horses. I’ve always believed in having a really good head horse. If you have a really good head horse, you have a really good header.” Often his headers ride King horses.  

“My biggest part of mentoring with kids is to help them understand what a good horse is and to keep their horse working. The trickiest part of heading is to throw three coils and not have the horse duck, to where they keep running and don’t duck.”  

Kristen summed up her husband. “Matt’s been around the world so many times, he likes roping with younger kids. Younger kids are more apt to follow Matt’s direction.”  

He loves to be busy, she said. “He has ADD and he’s always got to be doing something,” she joked.  

But he credits good help for the ability to get everything done. Sister Bryel manages King, the collecting, breeding, shipping and foaling and runs the distribution center. His mom, who also lives near Coleman, helps with ProEarth, and his son Keaton manages the calls and orders at the distribution center. Kristen’s mother and step-mother both help with ProEarth, in human resources and management.  

“I have a great team. We’re pretty much family.”  

He and Kristen have the next generation started in rodeo. 

Their daughter Keylee is 18 and has her WPRA card, with the goal of making the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. Her dad wants to help her as much as he can. “I’m a good driver,” he said, “and a good chute popper,” running the chute during breakaway practice. She will attend Southeastern Mississippi University this fall, competing in collegiate rodeo. 

Son Max, age 14, likes to rope, snowboard and work on machines.  

And Zanc is always looking towards the future. He’d like to get CattleActiv in more feedlots, through the corporate level. “I’m hoping it takes us to where we’re a huge business. 

“The biggest thing is to progress the industry, to find a better way to do things. I’m hoping I’m a part of that. I feel like it will give me opportunities to give back to the different disciplines that I love and cherish. 

“I have a great life, and I love what I do. I just want to keep doing that.”