WPRA Awards: A Rising Star, Horse With the Most Heart, and Horse of the Year

Each year, there are so many great horses to be recognized and the WPRA has some special awards for those one-in-a-million horses

Kassie Mowry / Hillary Maybery for Rodeo On SI

At the Women's Professional Rodeo Association Awards Luncheon, some very special horses were honored. As I spoke with many of this year's top cowgirls leading up to the National Finals Rodeo, they all have such deep respect for their competitors and their horses. More than one told me that any horse in the top fifteen would be deserving of the Horse of the Year title. I would have to agree, because what an exceptional set of horses we have again this year. A couple more awards were given earlier this week and we wanted to highlight those great horses.

The 2024 Horse of the Year was no surprise - Force The Goodbye “Jarvis” ridden by the great, Kassie Mowry. At just six years old, Jarvis qualified for his second National Finals Rodeo this year. Although he was young, Mowry climbed aboard the great gelding and earned back-to-back round wins to close out their 2023 NFR.

With over $1 million in lifetime earnings in two years of competition, it was an emotional goal for Mowry to qualify again this year. It was a goal of Mowry's late fiance, Michael Boone, to get Jarvis back to the Thomas and Mack. After Boone's unexpected passing in June, Mowry had a broken heart, but never quit. She kept Jarvis on the road and winning and they made it back. Their entire journey has been about much more than running barrels or winning, but to see this duo earn back to back round wins by round five in this year's NFR gives me goosebumps.

As of Round Eight, they have been second in two rounds and have won four consecutively. A World Championship is looking very possible for this amazing duo.

The Scoti Flit Bar Rising Star Award is given each year to a young horse that is making their first NFR appearance. In 2024, Latricia Duke’s DM High Roller “Vanilla Wafer” was selected. The great stallion did the lion’s share of winning for Duke this year, qualifying them for their first Wrangler National Finals Rodeo and was also chosen as the Reserve Horse of the Year.

Vanilla Wafer is third generation for Duke, who purchased his granddam, Lady Rompin, through a kill pen auction for $400. Lady Rompin went on to become a phenomenal producer, including a FireWaterOnTheRocks daughter, Happy To Run Em “Kylee." Duke and Kylee found a lot of success at the aged events, but it was more than her winning ways that made her special to this cowgirl. Duke once told me that she may have won more on other horses, but Kylee was one of her all-time favorites. 

Kylee and French StreakToVegas crossed in the way that breeders dream of, to produce DM High Roller. Duke has always loved the stallion and he has been her ideal horse from the day that he was born. She has previously told me how important it was for her to get him to the NFR, so that everyone could see what he was capable of at this level. There are significant challenges for a stallion that no other performance horse deals with, but Duke and Vanilla Wafer have won and won and won, in spite of that.

Leslie Smalygo and JustAHeartBeatToFame have had an amazing year, winning Rodeo Houston and the Calgary Stampede, amongst others. While I cannot say with certainty, I believe Mary Burger and SadiesFamousLastWords are the only other duo in history to win Houston and Calgary in the same year. “Gus” was voted Horse With The Most Heart in 2024.

Smalygo purchased the gelding off the track at age three and trained him herself. In a world that puts so much emphasis and pressure on young horses, I love Gus' story. He won $0 on the race track, won $0 in futurity earnings, and did not win his first WPRA check until 2019, at age nine. He and Smalygo qualified for their first NFR in 2022 and earning roughly $78,000, including a round win. In 2024, they are making their second trip to the NFR.