Hunting Unicorns: 2025 WPRA Top 15 NFR Barrel Horses

Meet the horses that carried the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association’s top 15 barrel racers to the 2025 National Finals Rodeo.

Finding horses that can play at the professional level is tough. They’re called unicorns because they are so rare. 

They either take a long time to make — from conception to competition — or they take a lot of money to buy, because of that time. Every once in a while, the talent simply falls in a rider’s lap.  

Qualifying for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo took more horsepower than ever before in 2025. More than 60 horses contributed to an NFR-qualifying effort. Some won lots of money, while others earned vital points to earn entry into the lucrative rodeos at season’s end. 

Thanks to EquiStat, Barrel Horse News is able to provide brief snapshots of where those horses came from and how their careers developed.   

1. Kassie Mowry            

Defending world champion Kassie Mowry made all three of the horses that qualified her for her fourth straight, and sixth overall, NFR. She and her late fiancé Michael Boone purchased all three before they were old enough to ride.      

Her biggest winner Force The Goodbye, who took reserve in the American Quarter Horse Association/WPRA Nutrena Horse of the Year voting after winning the title last year, was purchased as a weanling from his breeder. He came at a slightly discounted price because of a hernia that needed surgery, which he received right after arriving at Mowry’s because it caused him to colic. 

Mowry and Boone purchased Famous Ladies Man as a yearling from Busby Quarter Horses in August 2016. Mowry had previously ridden his half-sister A French Lady, by Frenchmans Guy. Both horses are out of Canadian Champion Barrel Horse Lady Perks by Dash For Perks. 

CP He Will Be Epic came from his breeder Claire Powell. Mowry saw a picture of him as a coming yearling and met Powell to pick up the gelding in San Angelo, Texas, home of a rodeo that he’s since won twice. 

Plans are for “Jarvis” and “Will” to make the trip to Las Vegas. Both horses have done well — Jarvis exceedingly so — in the tight confines of the Thomas and Mack Center Arena. 

2. Brittany Pozzi Tonozzi

After losing all her rodeo horses to injury in 2024, Tonozzi found her light in the darkness in Sir Epic, owned by Pete Carr and his daughter Morgan Bagnell, at the close of the season.  

Pete Carr and Morgan Bagnell had the Kassie Mowry-trained aged-event standout on the market most of 2024. He won his first pro rodeo money with Tiany Schuster in the spring before Carr reached out to Tonozzi late last summer, telling her to “sell him or run him … take him and see what you guys can do.” 

Tonozzi borrowed the Australian import Cashin In The Fame, owned by Tamara Walker and Molly Harper, for Rodeo Houston, where he placed before with Lakken Bice. “Bobby” was trained and exported by Montanna Kent. Bobby is by American import THR Seconds Ta Fame (Seconds Ta Fame in Australian paperwork) and out of the Australian-bred barrel mare Sava S Miss Kayote, who traces back to Jet Deck, Three Ohs and Oteo. 

Tonozzi also won $4,539 on JL Roc Lost A Sock, a former futurity standout trained by Mark Bugni that she acquired from Presley Smith. The 8-year-old gelding is also by JL Sirocco and out of the Thoroughbred mare Reddy To Rebound by NFR sire Red.  

In September, she added Famous Storm Chaser (“Kid”), an Ashley Schafer-trained pro rodeo winner for Rayne Grant, to her team. The 8-year-old Dash Ta Fame gelding out of French Firewater Bug by NFR Sire Chasin Firewater, placed at Playoff Tour rodeos in Lewiston, Idaho, and Mandan, North Dakota, to earn $4,186. 

Tonozzi also picked up small checks on her home-bred and -trained products Babe On The Prowl, a 6-year-old full sister to her late great NFR mare Ima Famous Babe (Dash Ta Fame x Streakin Six Babe), Pockets Fulla Fame, a 5-year-old Dash Ta Fame gelding out of a mare that combined the world champion bloodlines of both Tonozzi’s Yeah Hes Firen and Lindsay Sears’ Sugar Moon Express, and her 2023 futurity standout Chitichiti Bangbang, a 6-year-old Tres Seis daughter of her NFR mare Kisskiss Bangbang.  

3. Emily Beisel

Beisel was on her way to the 2024 Guymon Pioneer Days Rodeo when she got the call offering her Teasin Dat Guy, who had taken her trainer Molly Otto to the 2021 NFR as a 5-year-old derby horse. Ironically, if she had a choice of her competitors’ horses to ride, her pick had always been “Chewy.” 

Vanilla Gorilla is Beisel’s first homemade rodeo star. He is out of her former pro rodeo winner Quijet, a full sister to WPRA World Champion Rare Dillion. 

Her boys — Namgis D 35 (“Pipewrench”) and Namgis D 33 (“Chongo”), both by Bucks Hancock Dude — came from Youree-Ward Barrel Horses. The elders of Beisel’s crew won $8,231 and $17,756, respectively. 

“I tried both of them as 5-year-olds,” Beisel said. “When I rode them, I was really torn. I think [Pipewrench] fit me better at the time. I wasn’t ready for Chongo at that point, but I always remembered how I liked that horse and kept circling back.” 

Both Ivory On Fire (“Liza”) and Dashing Olie (not “Ollie”) came from her friend Shelby Ridling. When Ridling was pregnant, she asked Beisel to run Liza, who is out of a full sister to Chasin Firewater, at the 2023 Ruby Buckle. 

This year she added “Olie,” a 7-year-old gelding by The Red Dasher and out of Fire Water Flame, a Fire Water Flit-Flaming Jet mare from the storied program of the great Wanda Bush, to avoid putting miles on the elder members of her crew. He won $13,268 and won his first pro rodeos.      

4. Hailey Kinsel

Kinsel acquired her legendary mare DM Sissy Hayday through the Texas Best Barrel Horse Sale in 2013. The now-all-time leading barrel horse commanded $11,500 as a broke 2-year-old. 

She also purchased TR Judges Doll (“Reese”) as a riding 2-year-old at the Copper Spring Ranch Sale in 2018. The 2016 Judge Cash daughter of two-time NFR Champion and two-time WPRA Reserve World Champion TR Dashing Badger (“Dolly”), by Mr Illuminator, was the third-highest seller at $65,000. They won $7,656 on the season. 

Kinsel acquired BCK Spyder Monkey (“Spyder”), who earned $1,826, in 2023 from Kallie Wright, whose family raised the 11-year-old daughter of The Goodbye Lane out of Phoebes Myth by Phoebes Cartel.  

Kinsel credited Reese and Spyder for maintaining her position in the Playoff Tour and allowing her to give Sis, one of the oldest horses ridden by the top 15, vital time off. 

“Collecting those tour points and keeping me in the mix at those Tour Rodeos, they took care of me,” Kinsel said. “They kept me in the top eight [in Tour Points] where I didn’t have to place at Puyallup to advance. They were winning me 10 to 50 points everywhere I went; it was super helpful.” 

She also won a little check on Sis’ sister An American Royal (“Libby”), whom she purchased as an embryo from John Maubach, who had Royal Sissy Irish. The 6-year-old mare was born on the day Kinsel and Sister won The American Rodeo in 2019. 

5. Megan McLeod-Sprague 

McLeod-Sprague wasn’t looking for a horse when Kyle Jack McEntire called her about Seis Corona (“Jagger”).  

“He called me out of the blue,” she recalled. “I wasn’t looking, but if Kyle Jack says I need to take a look…” 

Megan Lewis had purchased Jag from his breeder Alan Woodbury. Lewis, along with Judy Myllymaki and Luke and Heather Dunning, developed the gelding. Jag was 10 when McLeod-Sprague purchased him in late 2021. 

McEntire also helped her find Jag’s backup this summer, Ticket Ta Heaven, a 6-year-old mare that came from Cassie Ambrose of the Youree-Ward family. The daughter of JL Dash Ta Heaven and out of Cantstopthiseffort by Special Effort helped McLeod-Sprague earn highest-money honors over the Fourth of July and earned $8,209 on the season. 

McLeod-Sprague also picked up $3,553 on Cowboy Ta Fame, a 12-year-old Cowboy Cartel gelding out of the Dash Ta Fame-SX Frenchmans Peach mare FC Peachfuzz Ta Fame that she purchased from his trainer Tami Semas. 

6. Lisa Lockhart 

Lisa Lockhart has paired with Alan Woodbury’s masterful creation Rosas Cantina CC since 2016 when the mare was just 6 years old. Now, at 15, she’s one of the eldest in the field. 

In 2024, Lockhart climbed aboard Blazin Ta Betty (“Sasha”), owned by McColee Land and Livestock. A full sibling to Jordon Briggs’ 2021 WPRA World Champion Famous Lil Jet (“Rollo”), Sasha started her aged-event career with Kelsey (Lutjen) Treharne before earning her first pro rodeo check with Kylie Wells. 

Lockhart’s own Prime Diamond (“Cutter”) came in clutch at the Pendleton Roundup, earning $13,606 at the only rodeo for the 14-year-old gelding. A homemade talent for Lockhart, Cutter, by Prime Talent and out of Hugos Diamond by Hugo Streakin, came from Copper Spring Ranch through her longtime friend Lisa Anderson. 

The 19-time NFR qualifier started her 2025 campaign with $5,947 won aboard Teton Ridge’s Promise Me Fame Guys (“Levee”) at the Badlands Circuit Finals. Levee, a 9-year-old by Aint Seen Nothin Yet and out of Bar Blue Lass by FC Aboo, was sold to Diamond 4D Performance Horses in early 2025 and is now winning with youth rider Tabitha Dyal. 

7. Carlee Otero 

Carlee Otero started her year on her 2024 NFR qualifier Blingolena (“Sly”), the 7-year-old Busby Quarter Horses-bred gelding by Blazin Jetolena out of the Dash Ta Fame mare Dash Of Bling. Unfortunately after winning $10,117 very early, Sly was injured outside of competition and required surgery that has kept him out of competition for all of 2025.  

That left her with yet another young horse that she purchased through Brett and Nicole Monroe, HB Firewater Vanila (“Leroy”). Carrying NFR bloodlines cultivated by the late Harry and Vivian Blackwell, Leroy is by the Designer Red x SX Frenchmans Vanila stallion Vanila Gold and out of the Dash Ta Fame x Fire Water Fanny mare Famousfirewateranny. SX Frenchmans Vanila and Fire Water Fanny carried the Blackwells’ daughter Amanda to the NFR in 2004. 

Leroy cracked out with a win at the National Western in Denver and carried Otero through the winter buildings, winning $22,419. 

She won a little check in Kingman, Arizona, on Luckys Champagne Guy (“Maverick”) that she purchased as a 2-year-old from his breeders Bill and Deb Myers. Kelsey Treharne futuritied Maverick before Otero sent him to Nicole Monroe for more seasoning. Unfortunately, his career as a top-level barrel horse was cut short at 5 due to severe arthritis in a hock.   

With her horsepower up in the air for the summer, Otero was casually looking when she was told about Cathys Kandy (“Twix”). Lee Hanssen, who owns the mare’s sire, encouraged her to take a look. After one run in the practice pen, she bought the mare in late spring and won $34,460. 

About the same time, Otero had been legging up AM Regina George (“Regina”), who belonged to bull riding legend Gary Leffew, her friend and mentor. The mare’s career started with Dalton Monk and was later campaigned by his sister Brittainý Hill. She spent most of 2024 in the pasture when Leffew asked Otero to take her. Even though she was off the pace for her first two runs, Otero decided to buy Regina before the Reno Rodeo. 

Otero plans on Regina and Twix splitting the runs in Las Vegas.  

“They earned it,” she said. “I feel like I ought to let them shine.” 

8. Anita Ellis

 Anita Ellis qualified for her first NFR aboard her two former futurity standouts — SGL Rico and RV Two Dash Ta Vegas.  

Ellis purchased “Rico” after his breeder Shana Gibson sent her pictures of two yearling prospects. She picked Rico, who is by The Goodbye Lane, because he was out of a Winners Version mare. 

“Axe” was raised by Ellis’ mother and stepfather Vauna and Randy Walker. He is out of Vauna’s multiple futurity champion Two Dash To Fame by Dash Ta Fame. Axe is a half-brother to Two Fools Gold, by Frenchmans Guy, the dam of Walker’s 2018 Pink Buckle Champion French Goodbye. 

9. Halyn Lide 

Lide raised her dream maker Jettin Ta Heaven (“Keeper”) out of her high school and college barrel horse Zeros Gypsy Jet, by noted Southeastern barrel horse sire Three O Jones. When the mare was injured while stabled at a boarding facility, Lide bred her to JL Dash Ta Heaven. 

“When he was a baby, I considered selling him because I was just going to keep mares,” Lide admitted. “No one wanted to pay for him, because he was the first year [for JL Dash Ta Heaven babies]. They weren’t proven. Then we started him, and it was over, and I ended up selling the mare.” 

Incidentally, Lide’s sisters-in-law Katelyn Scott and Lorissa Merritt both ran Keeper a little during his aged-event career, which overlapped Lide’s pregnancies with her and husband Aaron’s two boys. 

Lide also won money on Stoli My Ride (“Shark”), a 12-year-old gelding by Stoli out of the Streakin La Jolla mare JT Joy Ride, and SR Easin Ta Heaven (“Tottie”), a 9-year-old mare by JL Dash Ta Heaven out of Easy Guys by Holland Ease. Both horses are owned by Lindsay Hurley. Those horses won $1,881 and $1,049, respectively, but earned her vital Playoff Tour points during the season. 

10. Tayla Moeykens 

First-time NFR qualifier Tayla Moeykens’ biggest winner KN Fames Best Yet (“Yeti”) came from Kava Heustis-Coburn, who purchased him as a baby from his breeders Kenny Nichols and James Barron.  

Moeykens originally borrowed Yeti for the 2023 spring college rodeos, because her horses were injured. She purchased the gelding after earning a reserve championship at the 2023 College National Finals Rodeo. 

Family-trained JM Pocketsdoubledash (“Lizard”) was purchased as a weanling from his breeders Jerry and Melinda Voorhies. Moeykens’ parents Rick and Deena raised Lizard’s sire Guyspocketfullofcash (Frenchmans Guy x Little One Again x Better Judgement) and sold him to the Voorhieses.  

Moeykens also had Huestis-Coburn’s Special Guy Dash for a couple of months during the winter. She won the Dixie National on the 6-year-old Dash Ta Fame gelding out of Amandas Guy by Frenchmans Guy. 

She also rode her 2021 College National Finals Rodeo champion Dash Of Blue Sky (“Blue”) at a few circuit rodeos. The Moeykenses bought the now-19-year-old mare in 2019 from her breeders Barney and Sunny Carnagey. The daughter of Bobbiesdashtafame out of the Six Fortunes mare Blue Sixes was trained by Sunny. 

To finish out the last weekend of the season, Moeykens borrowed Friday Nite Headline, an 8-year-old gelding by Shootin Firewater out of E Z Dash by Holland Ease, from Lisa Warfield for Mona, Utah.  

11. Tricia Aldridge 

Aldridge already had a Tres Seis colt of her own on the ground when she saw Leslie Bailey Martin post a picture of her palomino weanling on Facebook. Something about the Tres Seis colt of the Frenchmans Guy mare French Bar Belle kept drawing her attention to the young stallion she’d later name after a local craft beer. 

Together, Aldridge and “Adios” set a new futurity earnings record, a new stallion performance earnings record and qualified for the NFR in his first full year of pro rodeo competition as a first-year derby horse. 

Adios won all of Aldridge’s money save one check that she won aboard Kissin Goodby (“Ember”), whom she futuritied last year as well. Aldridge sold the 5-year-old mare, by The Goodbye Lane out of Letta Cat Do It by Letta Hank Do It, in the spring to Andrea Anderson, who graciously let her borrow her back for a spell this summer. 

12. Hayle Gibson-Stillwell 

Stillwell raised her big money winner Buncha Dinero (“Piper”). Stillwell won a breeding in a stallion service auction to WPRA World Champion Sire PC Frenchmans Hayday and crossed on her pro rodeo-earning Thoroughbred mare Rambunchkie, a Bellamy Road daughter she bought while working at the racetrack. 

She purchased RDC Dancingtothelead (“Fancy”) as a yearling from Rockin Diamond C Ranch at the 2018 BFA Sale for $5,700.  

Both Piper and Fancy had successful but limited aged-event careers, and they both won the very first pro rodeos that they entered during their futurity years. 

Stillwell’s oldest rodeo horses Smiling N Ta Fame (“Sharky”) also contributed a pro rodeo win and $3,731 in earnings. She bought the daughter of WPRA World Champion Sire KS Cash N Fame out of Dancing In My Heart by Special Kinda Dancer as a green-broke 6-year-old from her breeder Lori Waddell. 

13. Wenda Johnson 

Johnson was paired with Steal Money (“Mo”) by Tres Mesa Horses, who owned her two standouts by First Moonflash — Dreams First Flash and Macgyver Moonflash. The partnership continued when the horses were sold to Charlie Cole and Jason Martin’s Highpoint Performance Horses in 2021. 

The 9-year-old gelding had nine starts on the track and won a race before starting his barrel training under the direction of Luis Hernandez, who trained the aforementioned duo as well. Mo was cruising the pattern when he was sent to Kassie Mowry in the summer of his fourth year.   

Mowry and Mo made the finals in their competitive debut at the BFA World Championship Futurity and won the Elite Futurity in the spring. By summer, Mo had joined Johnson on the NFR trail and caught national attention with stellar runs at the Calgary Stampede. 

Johnson also won $8,913 over the winter run on Hesa Mr Moonflash (“Diego”), another First Moonflash gelding owned by Highpoint that came from Jamie Montano in November 2024. Diego, who is out of Royal Wild Time, was a stakes-placed finalist on the track before Montano trained him for barrels. 

Johnson also won $3,177 at a couple of rodeos on her own mare Tempting Moon Dash (“Quince”), a First Moonflash out of a Tempting Dash mare, and $521 at Salt Lake City on the Kellett family’s Marlahoooch, a PC Redwood Manny daughter. 

14. Andrea Busby 

The defending NFR average champion relied on seven horses to make her return trip to Vegas. Busby’s biggest winner was the Ashley Schafer-trained futurity superstar Born On Derby Day, whom she purchased in late 2022. 

She added another Schafer trainee to the team this spring in Fiesta By Design (“Mitch”), who won $3,566 in his first year of rodeo. The 5-year-old is double-bred NFR, being by Slick By Design and out of HP Fiesta Fame, a daughter of Dash Ta Fame who’s out of Kelly Yates’ NFR great Firewater Fiesta. 

Busbys’ homebreds also contributed to the effort with Blazing With My Dude leading the way. Tito was trained and futuritied by fellow NFR qualifier Sue Smith and is out of Britney Diaz’s NFR mare Dasher Dude.  

Busby’s NFR average champion Jets Top Gun (“Benny”), who carried Tonozzi to the WPRA World Championship in 2023, earned $3,519 at the WPRA World Finals. The Blazin Jetolena gelding out of GL Famous First Lady, a sister to Mowry’s Famous Ladies Man, was out with injury for 2025 and is too heavy around the midsection to be ready for the NFR. 

Other talented youngsters that joined Busby’s team during the season include two 2019 geldings — Hanksnthefastlane (“Goodbye”), $10,503, and Awesome Arlo, $3,678. Goodbye, by The Goodbye Lane out of Sissy B Gold by Letta Hank Do It, has NFR connections through his trainer Sara Rose Waguespack and breeder Taylor Hanchey. “Arlo,” by Blazin Jetolena out of Ta Wonder by Dash Ta Fame, does too through his trainer and former owner Jordon Briggs. 

Busby also earned $2,125 on RC Black In Famous (“Pickles), a 10-year-old mare by Famous Gold Coin out of the great NFR mare and producer RC Back In Black by Ninety Nine Goldmine, that she acquired in 2022.  

14. Katelyn Scott 

Scott’s biggest winner Justa DTF Frenchman (“Peanut Seed”) was purchased by her sister Lorissa Merritt at the start of the summer run after Streak N Liza (“Twiz”) came up sore. Merritt purchased Peanut from Jessica Anderson, who won pro rodeos and many amateur rodeos with the family-raised gelding. 

Merritt, whose twin brother Aaron is married to Halyn, also found Watch The Freak Fly (“Baby Cakes”) for her sister. Baby Cakes came from Tammy Balch and had primarily been ridden by her daughter Brooklyn when Merritt had the mare in to sell. After threatening with the old “if you don’t buy, I will,” Scott purchased Baby Cakes in 2023. 

Older sister was also the connection who led to Scott’s purchase of Twiz in the spring of 2024. A bucking spree had essentially relegated Twiz to backup status at junior rodeos. Having been acquainted with the gelding through his former owner Donna Murphy, Merritt suggested him to Scott. 

The last of her quartette of horses, Heaven Sent Fame (“Kian”), was purchased this spring, mainly to use at her Turquoise Circuit rodeos. The 2019 JL Dash Ta Heaven-Frenchmans Six Dash gelding came from his breeder Lauren Kelly. Kian earned $7,158 in his debut rodeo season.