The Women’s Professional Rodeo Association has named Kayla Jones, host of The Money Barrel podcast, as the recipient of its 2025 Media Award, honoring her impact on storytelling in the barrel racing industry.
External link: WPRA Announces 2025 Committee and Contract Awards
For more than five years, Jones and her husband, producer, and editor Kreg Jones have brought listeners the voices behind the sport—the champions, trainers, breeders, and families who make barrel racing what it is. What started as a passion project recorded on an iPhone and a cheap microphone has grown into one of the most respected platforms in Western media.
“Kreg wanted to start a video gaming podcast with my brothers, and they told him no,” Jones laughed. “So he decided to learn how to edit podcasts anyway, and I said, ‘Well, I know a lot of people and I talk a lot—let’s make a barrel racing one.’ That’s literally how The Money Barrel started.”
Since that first beer-cracking episode with her friend and decorated trainer, Taylor Miniat, the show has evolved into a trusted weekly listen for anyone who loves the sport. Its tagline and promise to share, “the good, the bad, and the ugly in barrel racing,” has remained true as Jones sits down with everyone from world champions to producers, giving them a place to tell their stories honestly and without filters.
In 2021, The Money Barrel partnered with the former Barrel Racing Magazine (now BarrelRacing.com), a collaboration that Jones credits with taking the show to the next level.
“Honestly, my friend Chelsea (Shaffer) took me to get Mexican food,” Jones recalled. “I knew she ran The Team Roping Journal Magazine, but I didn’t really know what all her job entailed at Equine Network. We talked about it, and she said ‘Hey, we’re starting this digital barrel racing publication, and we need a podcast. None of us want to compete against you, and I want you on the team.”
At the beginning, Jones and her husband weren’t selling sponsorships, they were purely doing it for a love of the sport. They’d started to realize the platform could turn a profit, but the partnership with Equine Network helped kick things to the next level.
“When we teamed up with (BarrelRacing.com), everything elevated,” she said. “It gave the podcast a real home base, and from there we just kept growing. It was still a couple of years before we launched The Rundown as a weekly news segment with BarrelRacing.com, but it added another layer, made it so fans could keep up with the sport week-to-week and still hear the deep-dive interviews that started it all.”
Jones doesn’t take all the credit for the show’s success.
“Kreg’s the one buying microphones at midnight and griping at me about sound quality,” she laughed. “Barrel racers can be tough to catch when they’re somewhere with good service, no background noise, and have access to great technology. He’s constantly testing, editing, fixing. He’s the reason the show sounds good every single week.”
That balance of authenticity and professionalism has built The Money Barrel’s reputation as both unfiltered and polished—a rare mix in Western media.
Receiving the WPRA Media Award, Jones said, was both humbling and slightly mortifying.
“I was so honored, and also kind of embarrassed,” she admitted. “I don’t love being in the spotlight. But the WPRA noticing us means a lot to me. We pride ourselves on promoting professionalism within barrel racing, and they are the standard for the industry as a whole, so it’s special to know they value what we’re doing.”
Her respect for the association runs deep; The Money Barrel has regularly featured WPRA leadership and athletes, opening conversations about the conduct, progress, and heart of the women’s rodeo world.
Outside the studio, Jones wears more hats than most people can count. She’s a wife, mom to her son Kash, and the marketing and PR director for the Pink Buckle, Ruby Buckle, and Young Guns League. She’s also a stallion incentive owner, barrel racer, and the producer of The Colorado Classic, one of the richest and most anticipated futurities of the summer.
“Honestly, I just love this industry,” she said. “If I see a need, I’m usually stubborn enough to figure out how to fill it—whether that’s starting a race, a podcast, or anything else. Working smarter has never been my strength. Working harder? I’ve got that part down.”
For Jones, the mission has never changed: highlight the people and horses who shape the sport she loves.
“It’s never really been about me,” she said. “I just want to tell stories that matter and make people proud of this industry.”
And now, with a WPRA Media Award to her name, the woman who’s spent years putting others in the spotlight is finally taking a well-deserved turn in it herself—just don’t expect her to sit still during the interview.
Listen to The Money Barrel with BarrelRacing.com show notes
- Bob Hamilton | Roundtable with Brandon Cullins, Ashley Schafer on The Money Barrel
- Phil Haugen: Process Over Results and Building Confidence in Horses on The Money Barrel
- California Girl: Hayle Gibson-Stillwell on the Money Barrel
- Connecting With Horses: Kathleen Daigle on The Money Barrel Podcast