Tayla Moeykens will step inside the Thomas & Mack for the first time in 2025 ranked No. 10 in the WPRA world standings after earning $142,560.90 across 87 rodeos.
The Three Forks, Montana, cowgirl is one of the youngest in the field, but she arrives with a foundation built on deliberate steps, strong horsemanship and the kind of mental discipline that shows up long before the bright lights.
Moeykens grew up in rodeo. Born and raised in Three Forks, she jokes that her mom “brought me home from the hospital and set me on a horse.”
Her mother is a horsewoman with decades of experience, and she shaped every part of Tayla’s horsemanship. “She’s taught me everything I know,” Tayla said. “She’s always mounted me well, helped me fix what I’ve done wrong and supported me. I made my first barrel run by myself at three years old. This has been my life.”
Her early confidence came from the mare that ended up launching her professional career — Dash Of Blue Sky, “Blue,”, a horse the family took in as a favor when she was 13. Blue had been patterned but never entered. Tayla’s mom seasoned her, and in fewer than 10 runs Blue clocked a 17.8 on a standard pattern. Tayla remembers thinking there had to be more behind that. “We were like, holy crap, there’s no way you have not entered this,” she said. But it was true. The mare had simply never been taken to jackpots.
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Tayla only ran Blue once before entering her in their first pro rodeo at Bigfork. “She filled my permit at the first rodeo she ran at,” Tayla said.
After that, Blue took off—winning the College National Finals Rodeo, the Big Sky Region, the KK Run for Vegas, the Montana Rookie title and making the circuit finals. Even now in her 20’s, Blue remains in the string. “She clocks like she’s 12,” Tayla said. “If I retired her, she’d go downhill. She loves it too much.”
That respect for long-term development is the backbone of Moeykens’ program — and central to the two horses that carried her in 2025: Lizard and Yeti.
JM PocketsDoubleDash “Lizard,” now 12, is the horse Moeykens ran most this season. He’s also a family-built project. “We’ve had him since he was six months old,” she said. “My mom trained him. We’ve done everything with him.” Her mom spent months choosing his dam after being offered a baby out of several mares. “She probably looked at it for a month or two before she picked Lizard’s mama,” Tayla said.
The gelding was born sticking his tongue out — the reason behind his name — and he hasn’t stopped since. “He outsmarts us,” she said. “But he’s almost too smart sometimes.”
What makes Lizard special, though, is his adaptability. Tayla can run him anywhere — and she has. “Whether I’m running out on the football field, whether he’s in Pendleton, whether I’m walking down Main Street, whether it’s muddy, hard, deep — he just goes, ‘okay, let’s do it,’” she said. She’s packed flags on him, breakaway roped on him and hauled him to events where kids hang on his head after runs. “He’s just an all-around good boy. Everybody needs a Lizard.”
His biggest stage win came at Pendleton — a rodeo he loves. “Lizard loves Pendleton,” Tayla said. “The whole time there it felt like he was just like, ‘yep, I got it. I know what’s going on. Hang on and stay out of my way.’” Winning Pendleton wasn’t just an accomplishment — it meant something to the people behind him. “I wanted to do it for mom and Lizard,” she said. “Lizard is kind of mom’s baby.”
Lizard also stepped up in the winter despite not feeling perfect. “He held his own, even with what he had going on,” she said. “He made the semifinals at Houston and did amazing.”
KN Fames Best Yet, “Yeti,” seven this year, came to the family as a five-year-old. From day one, the plan was long-term. “We made a pact we were not going to run him too hard,” she said. “We were going to take him at a pace he could handle and really gain his confidence.”
This season, Yeti grew up. “He’s firing harder, being more aggressive, starting to come into his own,” Moeykens said. “He’s still the biggest goober we have.”
His preferences are unique. “He really likes indoor pens… but he absolutely loves Cheyenne,” she said. He placed big there, giving the team an important summer push.
Yeti’s job in the program is to develop into what Lizard already is — a rock-solid rodeo horse. So Tayla and her mom prioritize his confidence when entering. “We put him in the best situations so when he is older, he’s the solid one too,” she said.
Consistency is Key
Moeykens’ calm approach sets her apart. She grew up hauling to youth events where she learned early to manage nerves. “Those opportunities taught me how to handle pressure situations and still go out and make the best run I could make,” she said.
As a pro, that mindset solidified.
“What I learned most this year was consistency,” Moeykens said. “Everywhere we went the boys just seemed to be right in there — top five, top 10, top 15. They were always right in the middle of the bunch.”
Her family keeps her grounded. Before every run her mom says the same thing:
“It’s only three barrels.”
Even at the most stressful part of the season, she stayed level. “With all that talk about the (top 15 cut) bubble, we placed at all four of the last four rodeos we went to,” she said. “We stayed our course and didn’t let it waiver. That’s what I’m most proud of.”
Moeykens and her mom enter all their own rodeos, mapping out paths weeks in advance based on money, ground, setup and what each horse prefers. “We pick our main path,” she said. “We know which rodeos our horses really like. Yeti loves Cheyenne. Lizard loves Pendleton. We put them where they can shine.”
A family operation
Her dad, though home more often for work, is just as involved. “He loves to drive,” Tayla said. “When he gets in the truck, Mom and I hand him the keys.” He also does all her shoeing and massages the horses on the road. “It’s a team effort.”
Even Blue still plays a role — her dad hauled the mare to circuit rodeos so Tayla could get count. “She still loves it,” Tayla said. “She clocks right there with everybody.”
Looking ahead to Las Vegas
Moeykens refused to say she’d made the NFR until the math was official. “Nope. We’re not there yet,” she said through September. “It is not a done deal.”
And yet she did it.
“It’s something we’ve all worked for,” she said. “But mostly it just showed what our horses are capable of when everything comes together.”
Her first trip to the NFR will look exactly like her season looked — grounded, disciplined and built around the horses that got her there.