Caitlyn White won the 2026 NFR Open barrel racing championship Saturday night at the Norris Penrose Event Center in Colorado Springs, riding the stallion Mr Soul to a 17.29 in the Top 9 Finals for $13,000 in her first trip to the circuit system’s season-ending finale.
It was the fastest Mr Soul ran all week, and it came on his third run in two days. White advanced out of Set C on a 34.69 average, third behind NFR qualifiers Lisa Lockhart and Katelyn Scott, then drew up seventh in the random-draw finals and put down the run that held. Scott chased her closest at 17.33.
“The first two, I put a little bit more pressure on myself,” White said. “But the final run, I’m like, we’re here, it’s awesome just to make the finals. I just let him do his thing.”
Mr Soul (Furyofthewind x Mckaizlees Kiss x Dash Ta Fame) is an 11-year-old stallion owned by John Nielsen of Payson, Utah, and he stands at stud when he is not on the road. He is the same horse White rode to the Open average 1D title at the Ruby Buckle West earlier this summer in the indoor at South Jordan. White, of Spanish Fork, Utah, qualified for the NFR Open out of the Wilderness Circuit average, and Saturday was her first trip to the national circuit finale in only her second year holding a WPRA card.
White drew up seventh of the nine finalists, which meant she had to sit through Lockhart’s run right behind her and one more after that.
“I held my breath through her whole run,” White said. “It really wasn’t until the last girl ran and they set her time that just every single emotion hit. I was just in shock at first, running against who I was running with.”
Her husband met her at the end of the alley for the first hug, and they waited out the last two runs together until it was official.
“He definitely knows when it’s his job to go out there and run. He can be butt to butt with another horse out there and never lose focus, never make a peep. He’s exceptionally well behaved for a stallion.”
-Caitlyn White
White did not come from horses. She grew up in a big family with no rodeo in it, and when she wanted in, her parents told her to find a way to pay for it herself. At 12 she halter-broke horses for neighbors down the road and bought her first one for $300. She jockeyed other people’s horses, hit local jackpots and ran amateur rodeos before getting her permit about three years ago.
Mr Soul filled it in his first three rodeos. She bought her card last year, made the Wilderness Circuit Finals on her first try and won the average there.
The finals paid $41,000. Behind White’s $13,000, Scott took second (17.33, $10,000) and Megan McLeod-Sprague third (17.38, $7,000). Lockhart was fourth (17.41, $3,500) and defending NFR Open champion Brittany Pozzi Tonozzi fifth (17.42, $1,500), with Alyssa Urbanek-Wade, Hayle Gibson-Stillwell, Emily Beisel and Hailey Garrison Graham each earning $1,500.
White placed in both rounds of her set prior to the finals, and banked $16,750 on the week.
Mr Soul came to White as a catch-ride about four years ago. Taylor Kramer trained and futuritied him before he fractured a hock and spent more than a year off. When White went looking for a jockey job, Kramer pointed her to Nielsen, who told her to come try him.
“The very first time I got on him, we just clicked,” White said. “Me and him got along great, and that’s kind of how it all started.”
He has the support to match. Nielsen partners with South Valley Equine, and White credits the vets there for keeping the horse right, with regular Accuscope work and a willingness to drop what they are doing when he needs it. His foals are showing the same engine. One of his first colts won better than $54,000 as a young horse and is now winning on the high school rodeo circuit.
“He’s just so honest,” White said. “It doesn’t matter if we’re inside or outside, jackpots or rodeos. He’s super consistent all the way around. He’s definitely made me into a better rider.”
His foals are showing up with the same tools.
“They definitely have a lot of speed. They’re wicked fast,” White said. “They just all around have really great minds. They know their job when they’re in the arena too.”
Winning it close to home made it sweeter. White lives and rodeos in the Wilderness Circuit, the rodeos nearest her Utah base. Colorado Springs isn’t too terrible of a drive, being in the neighboring state of Colorado.
“It’s been great. All the girls are super nice and helpful,” White said. “I live out here in Utah, so there are so many good rodeos close, and they’re all great.”
“(Mr Soul) is just so honest. It doesn’t matter if we’re inside or outside, jackpots or rodeos, he’s super consistent all the way around. He’s definitely made me into a better rider.”
– Caitlyn White
The win also punches White’s ticket to Puyallup, an arena she has never run. She is not one to map it all out and get ahead of herself, though.
“I’m not a huge goal setter. I just go with the flow,” she said. “I’d love to make the circuit finals again and creep up in the world standings, maybe get in the top 30 so I can hit some of the bigger rodeos this winter. It would just be a huge bonus.”
“It still doesn’t quite feel real,” she said. “I know it happened, but I’m like, did it really happen?”
“The very first time I got on him, we just clicked.”
– Caitlyn White