In the earliest days, cowboys and cowgirls hopped a train—often with their horse in tow—to travel to eastern Oregon to compete in the most lucrative and prestigious rodeo event on the calendar. Sometimes the ladies competed against the men but even in the beginning, the Pendleton Round-Up offered a slate of events just for women.

The ladies are so entwined in Pendleton’s rich history that four cowgirls grace the rodeo’s Hall of Fame but every one of them competed prior to the birth of the Girls Rodeo Association, the group that has grown to be the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association (WPRA).

In fact, it was after an accident took the life of famed bronc rider Bonnie McCarroll in Pendleton’s arena in 1929 that competitive opportunities for women in rodeo began to shrink, spurring them to create their own organization in 1948.

Back at the Round-Up, the show went on but the women were relegated to “safer” contests like ladies-only races on the track. With the growing popularity of barrel racing, the Round-Up attempted an open contest in 1962 but the logistics of the Pendleton arena—actually a football field complete with grass and a dirt track encircling it—made the probability of the Round-Up ever being part of the WPRA very dim.

The Plan

Then came 2000 and a new version of the ProRodeo Tour from then-PRCA Commissioner Steve Hatchell. In order for any rodeo to be considered for the Tour, and the accompanying television coverage, it had to have a WPRA barrel race.

The two notables missing that requirement were the Lewiston, Idaho, Round-Up and Pendleton. While securing a barrel race at the former was relatively easily done, the latter required a lot of conversation and WPRA officials got together with the Round-Up, looking for a creative solution.

Proposals included hosting the barrel race up the road at the Hermiston, Oregon, arena, an option the Pendleton committee obviously didn’t favor, or plowing squares in the grass where the barrels would sit, as was done at other grass arenas like Bonifay, Florida, and St. George, Utah.

The barrel racing rumor mill quickly caught word of the discussion and WPRA membership meetings that spring often circled back to the topic. Opinions were strong with some loving the idea of being part of one of ProRodeo’s oldest and most unique events and others claiming it was too dangerous to have horses running on the grass.

“The number one comment was how do you turn on the grass?” said Nick Sirovatka, a now 37-year member of the Pendleton Round-Up committee who previously served on the Round-Up board as the arena director and is still responsible for the track and ground. “And of course, the answer was you don’t. You turn on the dirt but you have to run all the way to it.”

Pendleton committee members which also included Jade Robinson, who served for years as one of the PRCA’s Pro Officials, came up with a proposal: put the barrels on the dirt track and stretch the pattern across the grass, creating the largest pattern in the WPRA’s schedule. The barrels would sit an exhilarating 288 feet apart with a standard 60-foot scoreline.

“That was a big hurdle because, obviously, it was an enormous pattern,” Sirovatka said.

Both the WPRA and Round-Up boards of directors acknowledged the controversy of the plan and the polarized reaction to it from fans and competitors alike.

“We spent a lot of time worrying about it, you know, is this safe? How can we make this as safe as a rodeo event can be? Is this something the Pendleton Round-Up can even do?” Sirovatka admitted.

To help sweeten the deal and allay concerns, the committee hosted a few trial runs with local racers and agreed to have a practice day before the rodeo. They produced articles with local veterinarians discussing shoeing options for turf running.

“I knew my neck was on the line if it didn’t work,” said then-WPRA Columbia River Circuit Director Rosanne Strobel in the October Women’s Pro Rodeo News. “Carolynn [Vietor, then-WPRA president] and I worked closely with the Pendleton committee and we were all confident that it would work.”

Strobel and Vietor brought the idea to the WPRA board who voted in late May of 2000. Eleven directors voted yes with some enthusiastically saying, “Let ’Er Buck” (the Round-Up’s motto) while others noted deep reservations while acknowledging that they felt the board had to approve because of their relationship with the PRCA.

Birth of the Green Mile

California cowgirl Cathy Staff was the gunner that September, the first cowgirl to run what has become affectionately known as the Green Mile. One cowgirl donned wooly chaps in a nod to the earliest cowgirl champs at Pendleton. Times were in the 28- to 29-second range.

Rookie Gloria Freeman and her huge black gelding Bull took the first title for $5,035 after tackling the course twice in 56.65 seconds. Then, as now, the champion took home a Severe saddle, Skyline belt buckle with the famous Pendleton bucking horse logo and a slew of other prizes. Ironically, the belt buckle in 2000 was sponsored by Marilyn and Tim Corfield: Marilyn competed in the open barrel race in 1962.

From the beginning, the Pendleton barrel race was a hit with the ladies and with the crowd.

“After over nine hours of slack, there were lots of people in the grandstands who came just to watch the barrel race,” Strobel remembered in that October 2000 interview. “During the performances, the crowds went wild over it.”

“Once the ladies had an opportunity to run it, we all saw how exhilarating it was. Not just the size but the atmosphere, running on that grass, in the stadium, with that crowd,” Sirovatka said. “I think it won over a lot of non-believers that the Pendleton Round-Up could have a barrel race.”

Though some competitors still have their reservations about the challenge of the transitions from dirt to grass and back as well as the size of the course, many more have made Pendleton a bucket list event.

Giving the Green Mile to the Masses

With the growing popularity of the barrel race, the Pendleton committee, led by members Carl Culham and Larry Williams, hatched a plan to add a 4D barrel race on the Green Mile with their annual Fourth of July Professional Bull Riders (PBR) event beginning around 2014.

“Obviously, the barrel race at the Round-Up is an amazing race that only a certain few ever get to run,” Sirovatka explained. “It’s such a unique pattern and we wanted to give folks a chance to see what the Green Mile is all about, give that opportunity to those who may never have a chance to run in the rodeo.”

“We were hoping to drive folks into Pendleton and to help increase the popularity of the event,” he continued. “The idea was, you don’t have to be a world champion . . . you’re welcome to come try out the Green Mile for yourself.”

The event was wildly popular, drawing nearly 100 runners each year.

With changes to their PBR schedule and other considerations, the last Green Mile 4D was held in 2023 but Sirovatka hasn’t given up hope for a resurrection.

“By golly, we are trying to get it back.”

Unexpected Benefits

The addition of WPRA-sanctioned barrel racing at the Pendleton Round-Up back in 2000 immediately wrought some benefits that were not foreseen during the deliberations.

One came instantly in the first year: Kristen Weaver (now Brown) claimed the Big Four title in 2000. Established way back in 1948, the Big Four Rodeos Association offers a cash bonus and saddle to the winningest contestant who competes in all four major Northwest rodeos: Kennewick, Walla Walla, Lewiston and Pendleton. It’s long been a prestigious and sought after crown for rodeo cowboys.

After years of only having two of the four rodeos in which to compete, Weaver became the first woman to win the title, adding her name behind world champions and legends like Dean Oliver, Larry Mahan, Cody Ohl and Fred Whitfield. Terri Kay Kirkland would take the title four years later and Stevi Hillman earned the honor in 2016.

A little Pendleton and family history was made in the second year of WPRA barrel racing at the Round-Up when former National Finals Rodeo qualifier Kelli Currin took the championship in 2001 just days after the tragedies of Sept. 11. She joined her husband and three brothers-in-law as Pendleton Round-Up champions, adding to the legend of the Currins on the Pendleton grass.

Conquering the Mile

When Pendleton first gained WPRA approval, the rodeo season didn’t end until the first week of November, but its timing in mid-September and huge payout have had an impact on the world standings and who ends up in Las Vegas at the National Finals Rodeo every year. Cowgirls like Tayla Moeykens (2025), Stevi Hillman (2023) and even the timeless Lisa Lockhart (2024) have used big Pendleton paydays as a launch to the Finals.

In 25 years of the Green Mile, there have been many memorable performances but none have topped the performance by the legend, the WPRA’s most decorated barrel racer, 11-time WPRA world champion Charmayne James and her horse Cruisen on Six during the Round-Up’s third year of WPRA barrel racing in 2002.

In what would become James’ last full year rodeoing, she clocked a blistering 27.50 in the short round to win the title with 55.47 seconds on two runs, setting the single round and average records that still stand today.

But the winningest cowgirl on the Mile is Washington’s Linzie Walker. Walker is one of three rookies to win the Round-Up, along with Freeman and Maegan Reichert, and one of six to win the Round-Up at least twice, joining James, Christy Loflin (now Hefley), Kimmie Wall, Hillman and Cheyenne Allan. Hillman and Allan are in rare air, each winning two titles on two different horses. Hillman was the champ in 2016 aboard Morning Traffic and claimed the title again in 2023 with Sand in My Socks. Allan went back-to-back in 2018–19 with homebred horses RS Mollys Honor and Streaking Honor Kid.

Walker holds the record with four titles, won consecutively from 2006–09. Loflin and Movin won three from 2012–14.

With her appendix gelding Dude, Walker is also one of just three cowgirls to break 28 seconds in Pendleton, along with James and Jolee Lautaret-Jordan. Her 27.64 in the 2007 short go is the second-best trip on the Green Mile in history and her two-head average of 55.48 that same year is just one one-hundredth behind James’ record.

Carrying on the Tradition

Safety was a concern in 2000 and it’s still central to the preparations on the track today. Though Sirovatka “termed out” off the board in 2023, he was asked to continue to oversee the dirt, a job he took on back in 2013.

“The board asked me and I’m all about keeping it safe and keeping good footing so this has been my role ever since,” he said. “I don’t have a title but I call myself the Dirty Old Man because I am in charge of the dirt.”

One challenge every year is the result of the Round-Up grounds location on the banks of the Umatilla River.

“It’s basically a riverbed so we get river rocks like you can’t believe,” Sirovatka said. Several years ago, he and fellow committeemen Burk Davis and Randy Bracher convinced the committee to invest in a rock picker. “It’s basically a machine they use to clean beach sand but it works amazing.”

Preparations kick off in mid-July.

“I rip it up, like cornrow deep, and spend about three weeks picking rocks out,” he said. “Then we start watering and working and we do that every day in August.”

Daily Round-Up court practices help feel things out: the Round-Up Queen and Princesses hit the arena at a full run, jumping rails placed around the track and circling the arena several times. This challenge requires good footing to keep the court’s horses sound so it’s a double win for the barrel racers too.

“The Court starts their practices the first week of August so we try to be ‘rodeo ready’ by then,” Sirovatka said. He moves onto the grounds two weeks before the rodeo to stay close for the daily prep.

The Next Quarter Century

Though Sirovatka notes that he still gets an occasional email complaining about the Green Mile barrel race, with comments ranging from “ridiculous” to “a circus act” to “junior rodeo” and “unprofessional,” the event receives overwhelmingly positive reviews.

“It’s obviously one of the drawing events of the Round-Up for fans,” he said. “We used to lose a lot of the crowd after the bull riding, they’d hit the beer stands.” The barrel race follows the bulls, Native American dancing and steer roping, coming just before the end of the rodeo.

“But now they come back and they’re watching the barrels.”

As the Pendleton Round-Up runs its 26th WPRA barrel race this week, the rodeo has added a second WPRA event with the breakaway joining the ranks, first on a trial basis in 2017 and then as a full-fledged event in 2021.

Will a cowgirl claim Pendleton’s all-around championship?

Who will take the challenge and conquer the Mile in 2026?

Pendleton Round-Up WPRA Barrel Racing Champions

• 🦎 Lizard on the Grass: Tayla Moeykens and JM PocketsDoubleDash Take $16K and Pendleton Round-Up Title
• How Kacey Gartner Prepared Her Sleek Speedster “Mercedes” to Dominate the Pendleton Round-Up
• Hillman for the Win: Pendleton Round-Up Barrel Racing Results 2023
• Lisa Lockhart Earns First Pendleton Round-Up Win en Route to NFR No. 18

Year	Rider	Horse	Time on Two Runs
2000	Gloria Freeman	“Bull”	56.65 seconds
2001	Kelli Currin	Bank on Biankus “Bank”	56.64 seconds
2002	Charmayne James	Cruisen on Six “Cruiser”	55.47 seconds
2003	Charmayne James	Cruisen on Six “Cruiser”	56.34 seconds
2004	Jolee Lautaret	Im Miss Sticks “Belle”	56.27 seconds
2005	Maegan Reichert	Toucha Trouble “Trouble”	56.69 seconds
2006	Linzie Walker	Azure Dude “Dude”	56.40 seconds
2007	Linzie Walker	Azure Dude “Dude”	55.48 seconds
2008	Linzie Walker	Azure Dude “Dude”	56.44 seconds
2009	Linzie Walker	Azure Dude “Dude”	56.54 seconds
2010	Jody Sheffield	Skip The Finances “Zoey”	57.52 seconds
2011	Nikki Steffes	Dash Ta Vanilla “Nilla”	57.02 seconds
2012	Christy Loflin	Sheza Blazin Move “Movin”	57.64 seconds
2013	Christy Loflin	Sheza Blazin Move “Movin”
2014	Christy Loflin	Sheza Blazin Move “Movin”	56.60 seconds
2015	Kimmie Wall	TKW Bullys Famous Fox “Foxy”	57.33 seconds
2016	Stevi Hillman	Morning Traffic “Martini”	59.36 seconds*
2017	Kimmie Wall	TKW Bullys Famous Fox “Foxy”	57.32 seconds
2018	Cheyenne Allan	RS Mollys Honor “Molly”	57.38 seconds
2019	Cheyenne Allan	Streaking Honor Kid “Good One”	57.59 seconds
2020	Canceled due to COVID-19
2021	Leia Pluemmer	Famous French Bug “Sister”	57.65 seconds
2022	Kacey Gartner	Rebel Look “Mercedes”	57.11 seconds
2023	Stevi Hillman	Sand in My Socks “Sandy”	56.90 seconds
2024	Lisa Lockhart	Prime Diamond “Cutter”	57.29 seconds
2025	Tayla Moeykens	JM PocketsDoubleDash “Lizard”	57.05 seconds