Four-Time World Champion Earns Second WPRA Horse of the Year Award

The results are in for the peer-voted Horse of the Year honors and this one is no surprise.

PRCA

Each year, the top barrel racers in the WPRA World Standings vote for the Horse of the Year. One of the most coveted and prestigious awards in the sport of rodeo, these titles are not handed out lightly. In 2025, the list of nominees was stacked. There are so many incredible, deserving horses, it can be hard to choose, but one stood above the rest for voters this season.

DM Sissy Hayday Wins Again

Hailey Kinsel | Nathan Meyer Photography

The 2025 AQHA/WPRA Barrel Racing Horse of the Year holds one of the most well-known names in rodeo: DM Sissy Hayday. A 14-year-old mare by top barrel racing sire PC Frenchmans Hayday and out of Royal Sissy Irish by Royal Shake Em, "Sister" has absolutely made history on the professional rodeo trail over the past decade.

According to QData, Sister has $3,429,801 in recorded lifetime earnings. She leads the list of all-time highest earning barrel horses by nearly $1.5 million. Currently she and owner/jockey Hailey Kinsel sit No. 4 in the WPRA World Standings with $186,317 won so far this season. The duo have previously earned four World Championships together (2018-2020, 2022), an NFR Average title (2020), and have qualified for nine consecutive NFRs.

This year some of their highlights include: winning the Reno (Nev.) Rodeo for the second consecutive year, winning Cody (Wyo.) Stampede
, and winning Spanish Fork (Utah) Fiesta Days Rodeo, where they set a new arena record on a standard pattern with a time of 16.57 seconds.

Although Sister was out for a portion of the winter rodeos, she rallied for the summer run, where she has always shone bright. This year, she ran at 21 rodeos, placed at 20, and won five. Those statistics are hard to even compare to, with few horses achieving that level of dominant wins.

Sister has been a consistent top three finisher in the Horse of the Year race since 2018, but has not won the award since that year. She was honored with the Scoti Flit Bar Rising Star Award in 2017, where she came into the NFR in No. 7 and finished as the Reserve World Champion, setting an arena record that still stands today.

Since 2017, Sister has proven tough to beat in any setup, but particuarly lethal in the tiny yellow arena in Las Vegas. Holding the arena record and several of the fastest times ever recorded in the Thomas and Mack, Kinsel and Sister have racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars at the NFR alone throughout their career.

Top Three Finishers

Kassie Mowry | Fernando Sam-Sin

The two horses rounding out the top three in the voting are also incredible athletes. At one point, Megan McLeod-Sprague did not think Jagger would ever compete again. He returned to the arena in 2025 to win some of the biggest professional rodeos in the country.

Reigning World Champions and currently ranked No. 1 in the World Standings, Jarvis and Kassie Mowry have broken more records than we can count. The duo also hold several spots on the list of fastest times ever recorded in the Thomas and Mack.

2025 AQHA/WPRA Horse of the Year Awards:
1. DM Sissy Hayday “Sister,” ridden and owned by Hailey Kinsel

2. Seis Corona “Jagger,” ridden and owned by Megan McLeod-Sprague

3. Force The Goodbye “Jarvis,” ridden and owned by Kassie Mowry