Louisiana native Kade Sonnier takes home the all-around title

The 90th edition of the St. Paul Rodeo failed to disappoint this year, with legendary performances delivered in all disciplines.

A highlight came when the final bareback competitor in the six performances over five days ran away with the title.

Kade Sonnier of Carencro, Louisiana, topped the scoreboard with an 89.5-point ride to take home the purse and the coveted belt bucket. He won the all-around title as well.

He rode Tator Tot, a horse he knew would do her job.

“She’s been outstanding for the last couple years and I was just thankful that I had the opportunity to ride her at a rodeo like this,” Sonnier said. “When you draw a horse like that you have to capitalize, and we did that today.”

The 25-year-old is only recently returning to form after sitting out much of last season due to a spiral fracture of his thumb he suffered on his riding hand in May 2024. He was out for two months, then returned to competition in July, only to reinjure the thumb.

Returning to competition after the second thumb injury, things didn’t go well.

“I wasn’t riding at the top of my game,” Sonnier said. “I had to go back home, from October through March, to get regrounded, get back to the basics and just remember why I was doing this.”

A third-place finisher in 2023 in his first trip to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, he hopes to return again this year, but intentionally doesn’t keep track of where he is in the standings.

“I’ve made a point of not looking at the standings,” Sonnier said. “Honestly, (last year) I got so caught up I got to the point where I was chasing and trying to make things happen instead of letting them happen, instead of letting God provide. You have to control the controllables and when you try to control things out of your reach, you can lose yourself and lose your motive for why you’re doing it.”

In the tie-down roping competition Riley Webb emulated Sonnier and won it all on the last ride of the rodeo, totaling 15.4 seconds on two calves to take the prize.

A two-time and reigning world champion, Webb won the first round (7.6 seconds) during the afternoon slack, and then won second in the second round (7.8 seconds).

Being the last to compete is an advantage, Webb said: “It’s huge to know what you have to be. I knew what time I had to be to win the round and the average. Then you know if you have to take a chance … I had to execute every step of it and it worked out.”

Webb was aboard his 12-year-old sorrel gelding Rudy, the horse he rode to win the PRCA world titles in 2023 and 2024. The Denton, Texas, native is currently ranked first in the PRCA world standings for tie-down roping.

The saddle bronc riding title went to Cash Wilson, a native of Wall, South Dakota.

He scored 91 points on The Black Tie, the 2024 PRCA Saddle Bronc of the Year award winner.

Wilson had never ridden that horse, but his traveling partner, Brody Wells, had “and said it felt like a dream,” Wilson said.

“That’s an incredible horse,” he said. “I am very thankful to draw him at a great rodeo and I couldn’t be happier.”

The 24-year-old competes in rodeos full time, with the goal of qualifying for the Wrangler National Finals, where the top 15 cowboys in each event compete for a world title. He is currently ranked 19th in the discipline.

A veteran barrel racer took home the gold when four-time world champion Sherry Cervi rounded the pattern in 17.24 seconds to top the board.

She was on a new horse, “Johnnie,” a 7-year-old mare owned by Highpoint Performance Horses. Cervi and the mare joined forces about two months ago and St. Paul was the second rodeo for the duo.

Johnnie is “really fast and she’s real `ratey’ too,” meaning a horse can turn around a barrel well,” Cervi said.

“A lot of horses struggle to turn barrels (in St. Paul), so you want a horse that looks for the barrels and turns. She’s good at that,” Cervi said.

Other 2025 St. Paul Rodeo champions include steer wrestler Ty Erickson of Helena, Montana (7.9 seconds on two head) and team ropers Hayes Smith of Central Point and Jason Duby of Klamath Falls (9.7 seconds on two head).

Breakaway roper Jill Tanner of Stephenville, Texas, won her event (2.1 seconds) and set a new arena record.

Tristen Hutchings of Monteview, Idaho, scored 90 points to win the bull riding title.