5 Star Champion Archives - The Rodeo News

5 Star Champion

Featured Athlete: Hazlee McKenzie

Hazlee McKenzie had a unique babysitter when she was a little girl. When her parents would go to a roping, they’d put her in a pen, on her pony Trigger. She’d ride Trigger for hours, and they didn’t have to worry about her. That’s how she fell in love with…

Featured Athlete: Nollie Launius

Every day, Nollie Launius makes strides toward his dream of becoming a professional roper. The 10-year-old cowboy from Nashville, Arkansas, is already a dual-event champion in the Southern Junior Rodeo Association, competing in team roping, breakaway roping, and goat tying. He’s traveling the rodeo trail with a prosthetic leg, born…

Reaching For The Stars: Lexee Jo Barvian

Lexee Jo Barvian started riding horses before she could stand on her own two feet, but these days the 18-year-old from Attica, New York, does both as a professional trick rider. While the graceful drama of a death drag is one of Lexee Jo’s favorites, the liberty stand is where…

Lari Dee Guy

“I just feel that roping has come so far since I was a kid. I feel that people have gotten so many opportunities with videos and schools and tools like the Heel-O-Matic, and horsemanship has come so far. We as older competitors have even evolved. I learn as much from…

Jackie Ganter

Professional barrel racer Jackie Ganter took the road less traveled when it came to her rodeo goals this season. It ultimately led her to a new horse, who is poised to put Jackie firmly in the competition for the 2019 season. The 22-year-old from Abilene, Texas, started out her 2018…

Jessica Routier

Jessica Routier’s goal at the beginning of the season was to finish in the top 30 of the WPRA world standings to set herself and her 7-year-old mare up for a bigger season next year. But when the barrel racer from Buffalo, South Dakota, and her horse, Fiery Miss West…

Tami Semas

Tami Semas—professional barrel racer, saddle designer, and wife and mother of two—found her niche in the horse industry in high school, and dug deep into her passion after college. The first of her family to rodeo growing up, the 41-year-old from Brock, Texas, learned by trial and error, and her…

Cole Edge

Cole Edge of Durant, Oklahoma, is sitting second in the PRCA standings in steer wrestling, an event he originally took up in high school for the all-around points. The 33-year-old cowboy comes from a family of ropers and focused primarily on team roping and tie-down roping through high school, but…

Timber Moore

“My drive is to prove to myself that I still rope good enough to make the NFR and compete with the best in my event,” says Timber Moore. “It is more of a job, but I think there’s probably a lot worse jobs in life than traveling around with family…

Stevi Hillman

With warmer weather comes barrel racer Stevi Hillman’s favorite time of year. Outdoor rodeos are her and her horses’ forte, and while the two-time WNFR qualifier from Weatherford, Texas, pulled a check in Houston, she won the first two outdoor rodeos of the year at Los Fresnos and Goliad, Texas.…

Caleb Smidt

“I’ve always wanted to rope since I could walk and be around horses, and it’s what I’ve always done,” says Caleb Smidt. “I watched the NFR on TV and it’s what I’ve always wanted to do.” The four-time WNFR qualifier and 2015 World Champion Tie-Down Roper is the first of…

Olin Hannum

Olin Hannum wasted very little time beginning his rodeo career. He was just three when he started chasing calves astride his dad’s pony, then roped and steer wrestled his way through high school rodeo. The 40-year-old, originally from Ogden, Utah, won his first state titles in 1995 in tie-down roping…