After a last-minute horse injury changed her plans, Kennlee Tate, 24, made it work on Sjrdiamondgolddigger to win the 2025 Riata Cowgirl Steer Stopping.
Tate, 24, of Salt Flat, Texas was 15.29 seconds on three steers to take home $10,752. It was the second year the Cowgirl Steer Stopping was included in the Riata Championships and Tate’s first time entering the event.
Most cowgirls choose to have a hazer to keep their steers from drifting to the right wall, and Tate did the same. Even so, her first steer stepped that direction, forcing her to adjust. She was 5.81 seconds on her first one.
“My first one stepped to the right a little bit,” Tate said. “I had to swing over a little more than I wanted to, but it worked.”
She drew better on her second steer and ended up 5.01 seconds, putting her fourth high call in the short round with a 10.82 on two head. Then came the short round, where her 4.47-second run was the fastest of the field to take the win.
“The short round steer was hard,” Tate admitted. “We saw that steer go earlier and we’re like, that’s not the one you want in the short round, he’s hard to be fast on. He was really slow. I had to pull my horse off and throw at the same time. But my horse did outstanding right there.”
Sjrdiamondgolddigger, a 7-year-old son of CD Lights out of Catlike Kit by High Brow Cat, is owned by Tate’s boss, WPRA world champion Annette Stahl, who keeps him in her string for the all-girl ropings.
“He’s mainly a heel horse,” Tate said. “But we had some horse troubles before we came, so we had to pull some of our heel horses to steer stop on. I felt like I had a little bit of an advantage because that horse hadn’t been headed on. He stopped pretty straight and finished a little better.”
Originally, Tate had planned to ride a stud belonging to Stahl, but after that horse was put on the injury reserve list just before it was time to head to Guthrie, Sjrdiamondgolddigger got the call.
When asked how the nerves compared in the steer stopping short round versus a jackpot or all-girl roping, Tate said it was an easier mental game.
“I don’t get super nervous,” she said. “I don’t have anybody else counting on me, so it was pretty easy.”
Tate also came back to the short round at the third high call position on Steely Dan Cat but drew tough luck.
“These two horses are polar opposite,” she said. “The sorrel horse likes to go a little more and Sjrdiamondgolddigger likes to stop a little more. So, when it felt like I could throw, I threw.”
