Taylor Cherry is on the ProRodeo trail with her standout junior stallion — and a breakaway horse — loaded in the trailer for her WPRA Resistol Rookie year.
Cherry didn’t grow up with ready-made barrel horses at her disposal—she built them.
The Quesnel, British Columbia, native got her start picking horses out of her dad’s herd at their ranch in Canada to run barrels on. Now, she sits in the top 10 of the Canadian Pro Rodeo Association standings. Cherry, 26, spends winters in Surprise, Arizona, and has had her CPRA card since 2015 but decided to make it official and put herself in the mix in the WPRA Rookie standings this season.
At the time of publishing, Cherry has $29,953.21 in just 21 rodeos, is seated at No. 4 in the Resistol Rookie standings as of August 12 and has won $5,923.86 in nine rodeos in the breakaway.
The Early Days
From the time she was a peewee rodeo cowgirl, Cherry knew she had it in her to be a winner. But to do that, it would take learning how to ride anything and everything.
“My dad never bought me barrel horses,” Cherry said. “He had some ranch/rope horses out there and I just started messing with them when I was younger and liked it. I actually had some good success on them, I think there were two or three of them that really started my career.”
Besides the pasture ponies that helped her become successful at junior and amateur rodeos across Canada, Cherry looked to another sector of the equine industry to strengthen her horsemanship.
“I always say: ‘The better you can ride, the easier it will be,’” she said. “I spent a lot of time riding with Jamie and Lanna Laird when I was younger. They’re kind of reining background-type. They taught me a lot; they really taught me how to ride. I spent a lot of time on the back of a lot of different ones; just really getting to know how a horse works and how their body moves and just the mechanics of it all.”
Riding with other disciplines gave Cherry a strong foundation as a horsewoman, allowing her to not only have some rodeo success, but also huge success on the barrel horse futurity scene. With her experience riding ranch horses from the ground up, Cherry has taken most of the horses she’s won on from their first 30 days to the winner’s circle.
Preacher Man
Speaking of taking one from their start to the success, there is a junior palomino stallion responsible for Cherry’s place in the rookie standing.
Blazin Sugar Daddy—“Preacher”—is a 6-year-old own son of the late Blazin Jetolena and out of a granddaughter of Frenchmans Guy.
He came into Cherry’s program as a 3-year-old from his owners, Kyle and Ashely Klassuen. “He had about 30 days on him when I got him,” she said. “I re-started him, per say, and brought him up from there. Then went to the futurities; he did really well at the futurities. I probably went to 10 events, and he’s probably won $220,000”
After a successful futurity season and his constant improvement with every run he made, Cherry figured Preacher earned a chance to hit the rodeo road.
“He’s super confident, I think that is the biggest thing about him,” the Canadian said. “He uses himself amazing. There has never been a time when I was like: ‘This horse is going to fall down.’ He is so correct; he just makes it easy on himself. I just knew after last year—he just made run after run after run—even on some bad ground out here in Canada.”
Preacher showed his qualification to be a full-time rodeo horse from the very start, handling less-than-ideal ground conditions and a loud crowd.
“I took him to Falkland rodeo and the ground wasn’t ideal there that week,” she explained. “I didn’t show him the pen; it was his first perf with a big crowd and lots of noise, that rodeo has lots of crowd and their noisy. He just kind of thrived on hit and loved it. He won that rodeo by a few tenths. After that, I was like: ‘Wow, he is going to thrive off the rodeo scene.’”
Keeping It Cool
With appearances at some of Canada’s biggest rodeos—like Ponoka and Calgary—on a 6-year-old who hasn’t spent years and years on the ProRodeo trail, one could wronfully assume that Cherry’s emotions have had quite the journey this season.
Cherry’s work with young horses through the years has taught herto keep a level head in high-pressure situations.
“I try to trust my training,” she said. “I guess I’m very non-emotional; I don’t ever get too upset about things. I am very level—I think that comes from riding so many babies and futurity horses. They humble you.”
Taylor Cherry
“If I know my homework is done, I am pretty chill about things,” she continued. “Honestly, Calgary was a good example because that’s the biggest rodeo ever and I literally just went in there like it was another jackpot. It was easy, you know, you just don’t put pressure on yourself that way.”
That level-headed mindset has helped Cherry climb to the top 5 ranks in the Resistol Rookie standings, even though she is only a rookie on the WPRA charts. With her main goal being to make the Canadian Finals Rodeo, Cherry and Preacher are entering the big Canadian rodeos, keeping their rodeo count low and making big runs when it matters most.
“You got to be positive and just keep rolling with it. Something is going to go your way at some point if you just stay positive.”
Taylor Cherry
2025 WPRA Resistol Rookie standings
As of Aug 12, 2025 from WPRA.com
| Rank | Name | Home Town | Money won | Rodeos Attended |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Makenzie Mayes (R) | Scroggins, TX | $52,989.31 | 70 |
| 2 | Emma Kate Parr (R) | Greensboro, AL | $46,615.77 | 77 |
| 3 | Makenna Shook (R) | Needville, TX | $35,709.06 | 54 |
| 4 | Taylor Cherry (R) | Surprise, AZ | $29,953.21 | 21 |
| 5 | Avery Ledesma (R) | Las Cruces, NM | $21,670.36 | 56 |
| 6 | Ruby Lightfoot (R) | Arlington Heights, CA | $18,897.25 | 82 |
| 7 | Brylee Banning (R) | Litchfield Park, AZ | $18,106.71 | 38 |
| 8 | Jordynn Knight (R) | Roosevelt, UT | $16,273.69 | 45 |
| 9 | Brylee Wall (R) | Roosevelt, UT | $15,109.17 | 33 |
| 10 | Jeannette Etchebarne (R) | Newberg, OR | $12,653.28 | 22 |