Mowry Captures Second Consecutive WPRA Barrel Racing World Championship

With grace and poise, rodeo's new favorite cowgirl claimed her second gold buckle in 2025.

Kassie Mowry | 2L Media

When casual rodeo fans saw that 2024 WPRA World Champion Barrel Racer Kassie Mowry would be competing in Las Vegas without Force The Goodbye ("Jarvis"), they may have underestimated her. For Mowry admirers, it was unsurprising to watch her win her second gold buckle, regardless of the conditions.

Mowry may be lesser known to rodeo enthusiasts, but she is a staple in professional barrel racing, with nearly $9 million in lifetime earnings. A futurity trainer by trade, she has trained countless horses that have run at the Thomas & Mack with other riders.

Now a six-time National Finals Rodeo (NFR) qualifier, Mowry first qualified in 2005. Fast forward to 2017, she won the San Angelo Stock Show and Rodeo, qualifying her for RODEOHOUSTON - which she also won.

The victories catapulted her into NFR contention and over a decade after her first trip to Las Vegas, she returned. That year, she broke the arena record aboard FirewaterMakesMeHappy.

For the past four years, Mowry has returned to Las Vegas riding horses she trained and owns. Each time, it has been on her terms, with low rodeo counts. Mowry is conscientious about what she asks of her horses.

The 2025 Season

Mowry and Jarvis | RodeoHouston/ Kassie Mowry

The 2025 season marked Mowry's first year to return to the big show as the No. 1 cowgirl in the World Standings and the reigning World Champion. Competing at just 28 rodeos this season, Mowry's rodeo count was roughly 60% lower than fellow competitors.

Mowry is strategic and analytical in choosing which horses run at certain rodeos. Riding CP He Will Be Epic ("Will") and Jarvis, Mowry sparingly hit the winter building rodeos. Throughout the summer, she remained on Jarvis and Famous Ladies Man, holding the No. 1 spot for the entire year after her RODEOHOUSTON win.

Due to the EHV-1 outbreak shortly before the 2025 NFR, Mowry had to make last-minute changes to her plans for Las Vegas. Will contracted the respiratory form of EHV-1 at the WPRA World Finals in Waco, Texas, but recovered relatively quickly. Mowry and her vet determined that Will was the best option to take to Las Vegas, under the circumstances.

In her own words, they were "winging it" in Vegas. Mowry explained the challenge in an interview at the beginning of the NFR,

"I'm not a jump jockey, so I feel like I bring a lot of young horses in here and force them to kind of grow up. I feel like this year, I'm going to have to grow myself and my jockeying skills. I've never gotten on something and run in front of the whole world at the Thomas & Mack."

The NFR

Kassie Mowry and Will | Nathan Meyer Photography

With Will by her side and a borrowed mount, Mindy Holloway's Heavens Got Credit ("Cornbread"), Mowry wanted to make the best of the 10 days. She started the rodeo with a win aboard Will in Round 1 and picked up another win on Cornbread in Round 6.

In a post-run interview following her first win, Mowry stated:

"I'm going to learn not to count Will out. He didn't come here as prepared for being my first stringer as I would want him to be. Will is Mr. Dependable. He is so solid. He's very sensitive and tries so hard."

Although jump-riding Cornbread was outside of Mowry's comfort zone, she rose to the challenge with grace. Following their Round 6 win, she explained:

"I did not want to make any unnecessary runs on this horse. He didn't need it, so I told myself I was just going to have to ride good. He's very sensitive in the turn and I have been able to place him and move him, because things happen so fast in here. He is a phenomenal horse."

Kassie Mowry and Cornbread | Nathan Meyer Photography

Leading the average heading into Round 10, Mowry was in the driver's seat. Her first downed barrel of the week was the final barrel she turned in the Thomas & Mack in 2025 - the third barrel in Round 10. The plus-five bumped them to fourth in the Average. Mowry thought the barrel cost her the gold buckle, but she earned her second World Championship by roughly $20,000.

Throughout the week, Mowry banked $200,437. Pulling checks in seven of the 10 rounds, she would have won the average by over three full seconds, had it not been for the downed barrel in Round 10. She finished the year with $403,882 in season earnings, on just 28 regular season rodeos and the NFR.

"It gives me a lot of momentum going into the next year. I'm so proud of the horses. I ran four horses this year and they all four got a big win somewhere. Incredible horsepower, I am so grateful, so lucky," Mowry said in an interview with PRORODEO.

Prevailing under conditions no one could have predicted, and with the grace she always possesses, Kassie Mowry is your 2025 WPRA World Champion Barrel Racer. Kassie, we tip our hats to your remarkable ability to help horses shine and your second gold buckle.

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