With under two months left in the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association regular season, three-time WPRA World Champion Hope Thompson leads the heading while Lorraine Moreno leads the heeling.
Women’s Professional Rodeo Association Heading Standings (as of Aug. 29, 2022)
Thompson, 36, of Abilene, Texas, has $20,740 won, getting the bulk of that money at the Bob Feist Invitational’s All-Girl Championship with Whitney DeSalvo.
| 1 | Hope Thompson | Abilene, TX | $20,740.00 |
| 2 | Bailey Gubert | Hungerford, TX | $16,812.00 |
| 3 | Rylea Fabrizio | Stephenville, TX | $7,500.00 |
| 4 | Kayelen Helton | Stephenville, TX | $6,630.00 |
| 5 | Jackie Crawford | Stephenville, TX | $6,055.00 |
| 6 | Emily Gately (R) | Escondido, CA | $3,500.00 |
| 7 | Lari Dee Guy | Abilene, TX | $3,480.00 |
| 8 | Kenna Francis (R) | Las Vegas, NM | $3,270.00 |
| 9 | Beverly Robbins | Muscle Shoals, AL | $3,164.00 |
| 10 | Martha Angelone | Stephenville, TX | $3,120.00 |
“Being able to make the time to to team rope and be successful at it is really important, especially with how much time we’ve been giving to our breakaway roping,” Thompson said. “Being on the bubble in the breakaway right now, the next time I’ll get to team rope is at the Abilene Special. I love heading, and I love the chance to do it any time I can. I spent a lot of my career training head horses with Lari Dee Guy, and it’s still a big part of what I want to do for the rest of my life. So the chance to compete and earn money toward the WPRA standings is really important to us.”
Thompson has been to 77 ProRodeos this year, too, sitting 25th in the WPRA’s ProRodeo Breakaway World Standings with $31,015.94 won with a month to go in the regular season.
Women’s Professional Rodeo Association Heeling Standings (as of Aug. 29, 2022)
On the heel side, Lorraine Moreno, 28, of Mathis, Texas, is making her first push at the WPRA’s heeling gold buckle.
| 1 | Lorraine Moreno | Mathis, TX | $16,180.00 |
| 2 | Jessica Remsburg | Leighton, AL | $11,618.00 |
| 3 | Rylie Smith | Whitsett, TX | $11,314.00 |
| 4 | Annette Stahl | Salt Flat, TX | $7,535.00 |
| 5 | Deborah Fabrizio | Pueblo, CO | $7,500.00 |
| 6 | Danielle Lowman | Gilbert, AZ | $6,120.00 |
| 7 | Courtney Crites | Welch, OK | $5,670.00 |
| 8 | Rebecca Cannizzaro | Wayne, OK | $1,787.00 |
| 9 | Cheyenne Blackmore | Hillside, AZ | $1,017.00 |
| 10 | Kelsie Domer | Dublin, TX | $625.00 |
“I’ve been going as much as I can,” Moreno said. “I’ve been keeping up with my practice and and staying sharp. I have kind of pieced my earnings together. I have just won several all-girl ropings that were WPRA approved. To me, every roping you want to go out and win so I try to go in and get a piece of something out of every roping.”
Moreno—who’s won the Cinch All-Girl title at the USTRC’s Cinch National Finals of Team Roping, placed at the BFI’s All-Girl and the Wildfire Businessman’s Roping and won the Patriot All-Girl, too—only bought her WPRA card two years ago, having not known much about the association before hand.
“Roping with some of these other girls who have been around it longer, they’ve told me about it and it’s like a guy getting a gold buckle,” Moreno said. “It’s been a goal of mine to try to get a world title. It’s such a pleasure roping with those women who’ve won many world titles. I roped with Kayelen Helton, and Bailey Hubert, who I’ll rope with at the WPRA Finals, and Beverley Robbins and Erica Krantz this year, and they’ve all been amazing.”
Moreno has a radiology degree, but as roping became more and more important to her, she decided to go to work for her father’s plumbing and electrical business to make time to rope.
“That’s the only way I can rope and practice enough to compete with these girls who rope 24/7,” Moreno said. “So for me to be able to compete with them at their level, I am just lucky enough my dad had a business that he allows me to be gone on days normal people have to work.”
