Abilene, Kans. August 2, 2025 – Kade Sonnier ruined a couch when he was a kid, riding the arms of it as he watched his heroes compete in the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo on television. And now he’s living his childhood dream. The Carencro, Louisiana cowboy won the bareback riding at the Wild Bill Hickok Rodeo in Abilene this week. He rode the Diamond G Rodeo horse Pendleton Revenge for 86.5 points and a check for $3,696. He had already won the Nephi, Utah rodeo on the horse earlier this month. The horse “isn’t very big,” Sonnier said,” but he bucks big. If you’re behind (in spurring), it’s hard. If you’re ahead, it’s really good. There was one jump in there where I was behind, and I was like, oh, no, I need to get back ahead. I was grateful that it worked out.” The seventh-ranked man in the PRCA world standings, Sonnier is having the best year of his pro rodeo career. “I’ve been extremely fortunate to be drawing good horses,” he said, “capitalizing on them and winning a lot of money in the process. We’re just having fun.” The son of Joey Sonnier, a former saddle bronc rider, Kade had a scholarship to play baseball at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana, and could have walked on to play football as well. But it was at the 2018 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, when he watched his dad ride saddle broncs, he realized rodeo was his dream. “My dad made the NFR in 2018, and I got to go and watch him,” Sonnier said. “That relit the fire for rodeo that I had as a kid.” As a kid, he was enthralled to watch rodeo. “When I was little, I would ride one arm of the couch in the bareback riding while I watched the National Finals Rodeo DVDs. I’d ride all fifteen horses, then when the tie-down roping came on, I’d switch to the other arm of the couch and rope the dummy. I ruined the crap out of a couch.” He’s planning for his and his small family’s future. He and his fiancée Sonora Schueneman and their fifteen-month-old daughter are saving up for a house, and planning for their futures. “I know this stuff doesn’t last forever,” Sonnier said. “Realistically I probably have about ten years left. I’m 25 years old, and if I can make it to 35 at the top of my game, I’ll be more than grateful.” He loves what he does. “It’s making a living, not having a job. I’m just fortunate and extremely blessed the good Lord’s given me an opportunity to live some little boy’s dream.”
During the rodeo, a big check presentation was held for Tough Enough to Wear Pink night, with $4,000 raised through voluntary donations for the Elsie Brooks Memorial Cancer Fund of Dickinson County. The rodeo has partnered with the Brooks fund since 2008 and has raised, with this year’s donation, over $53,000 for financial help for people undergoing cancer treatment in Dickinson County.
Other 2025 champions include steer wrestlers Will Lummus, Byhalia, Miss. and Cody Devers, Perryton, Texas (3.7 seconds each); breakaway ropers Taylor Munsell, Alva, Okla. and Madalyn Richards, Hereford, Texas (1.9 seconds each); saddle bronc rider Cooper Thatcher, Darbalara, New South Wales (90 points); tie-down roper Riley Pruitt, Gering, Neb. (8.3 seconds); team ropers Kaleb Driggers, Hoboken, Ga./Junior Nogueira, Presidente Prudente, Sao Paulo, Brazil (4.3 seconds); barrel racer BryAnna Haluptzok, Ardmore, Okla. (16.01 seconds); and bull rider Canyon Bass, Johnson City, Texas (89 points).
Next year’s Wild Bill Hickok Rodeo is set for July 28-31, 2026.
Zac Dallas finishes in fourth place in the saddle bronc riding at the 2025 Wild Bill Hickok Rodeo in Abilene. The 2026 rodeo will be July 28-31. Photo by DeLynn Farson.