The year Stingray (MP Meter My Hay) won the Horse with the Most Heart award and Sherry Cervi rode her to her fourth world title in record-setting fashion, breaking the WPRA NFR earnings record ($155,899) and average record (138.15 seconds on 10 runs) while becoming the first barrel racer since 1997 to place in all 10 rounds. They also won the world together in 2010.
Nick Dowers made history by becoming the first person to win both a world championship colt-starting event and a major futurity. Winning both the Road to the Horse title and 2013 NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity on Time For The Diamond.
Billie Jack Saebens won the first-ever American Rope Horse Futurity Association World Championship heeling title in 2017, not long after qualifying for his first NFR. He took that win aboard Macho Man Whiz, a 4-year-old he found and purchased through Facebook. In the years since, he has ridden standout horses such as The Notorious B.I.G. and added a Bob Feist Invitational victory to his record.
"Make it like a bronc saddle."
Six months pregnant, Jackie Crawford had the horn cut off her Martin saddle so she could rope at Globe Life Field in the inaugural National Finals Breakaway Roping Finals, protecting her baby in case her horse tripped or stumbled. She went on to win the world, cementing the moment as one of the most talked-about in women's rodeo history.
The first WPRA breakaway roper officially recognized on the world champion stage, following the 10th round of the 2022 NFR at the Thomas & Mack in Las Vegas.
Angelone also won her first WPRA World Champion Breakaway Roping title in 2022 with $130,304, just two weeks after her younger sister Sarah won the WPRA All-Around title, making Martha the second WPRA member from Virginia to win a world title.
Trevor Dare, the 2021 NRHA Professional Horseman of the Year, crossed $1 million in career NRHA earnings after the 2022 NRHA Futurity, with a sixth-place Level 4 Open finish on Blame The Corona pushing him over the mark. The milestone capped a big year that included a National Reining Breeders Classic Championship on Jerseys Baby Driver, worth $75,000. Dare, who started showing horses at age 4 and now trains out of Silver Spurs Equine in Purcell, Oklahoma, credited his team and clients rather than counting down to the number himself.
A Saturday night in Fort Worth, made for the history books.
On March 1, 2025, Erin Taormino made history at Will Rogers Coliseum becoming the first woman to win the NRCHA World’s Greatest Horseman®. Taormino and Hazardous Material, affectionately known as “Skeeter” and owned by Linda Mars, delivered an unforgettable performance, earning a final composite score of 884.5 across the herd work, rein work, steer stopping, and cow work.
