At press time in late September, Kash Bonnett was getting set to try to defend his 2025 Canadian Professional Rodeo Association heading title at this year’s Canadian Finals Rodeo. The 2026 CFR is about to go down, Oct. 7-10, in Edmonton, Alberta, and 25-year-old Ponoka, Alberta, cowboy Bonnett and Logan Cullen are again the leaders of the Maple Leaf Circuit team roping pack.
Q: Who taught you how to rope, and how early did you start?
A: My brothers, Logan and Keely (Logan heads for Keely), are 7 and 5 years older than me, so they’re really the ones who taught me. I wanted to do whatever they were doing, and all we did growing up was rope, so I got addicted to the sport and have roped my whole life. Our mom (Dee Ann) barrel raced, and our dad (Paul) started roping when we did.
Q: Have you always headed?
A: No, I heeled until COVID. We didn’t have any rodeos up here in Canada in 2020, so I started heading at the rodeos in 2021. There are a lot of good headers and heelers in Canada, but more good heelers. So I felt like I could get better partners if I headed. I also bought a really good head horse. I bought him from Logan to heel on when he was 5, because we all thought he’d be too small to head on. Then he grew up and turned out to be an even better head horse.
Q: Let’s hear about your head horse herd.
A: My No. 1 straight-up rodeo horse is Joe (Boy Wrangler Lark). He’s the bay, he’s 11 and I don’t jackpot on him, but he goes to every rodeo. I ride the gray—Greg (Sabres Top Gun) is 7—at every jackpot.
Q: Describe your roping style.
A: I see myself as a better jackpot guy than a rodeo guy. But it seems like the rodeos have been going pretty good the last two years, and I can go fast in the fast setups.
Q: Which ropers did you pay closest attention to growing up?
A: My whole life I looked up to heelers, because I was heeling at the time. So I watched guys like Tyrel Flewelling and Rocky Dallyn. But I do remember watching headers like Kolton Schmidt and Levi Simpson up here, too.
Q: Have you worked other events along the way?
A: I roped calves and bulldogged, too, in high school and college (at Vernon College in Texas).
Q: How long have you rodeoed hard?
A: I’d say three years, but we didn’t rodeo as hard this year as the two years prior.
Q: How do you divide your time on each side of the border?
A: This year was fairly simple. We just went to a few winter rodeos and every Canadian rodeo, with the goal of winning enough to get into the bigger winter rodeos next year. We mostly stayed in Canada. Logan fractured his (fibula in his left) leg (when a horse fell on him). He roped in an air boot starting July 15 for about five weeks. He still roped at the rodeos up here, but we didn’t want to travel with him having a broken leg.
Q: Have things otherwise gone according to plan?
A: We’ve won enough to get into Fort Worth and San Antonio next winter, but probably not Houston.
Q: Do the CPRA and CFR trump the PRCA and NFR for your team?
A: This year they did, for sure. We may have gone to eight or 10 more rodeos if he hadn’t broken his leg, but not many. We went to about 60 rodeos total in 2026—about 50 of them in Canada.
Q: Are the Canadian rodeos any different from PRCA rodeos?
A: They’re not as different as people think. For the most part, the cattle are smaller and quicker, and the boxes are shorter up in Canada. The barrier’s about the same length, other than places like Salinas.
Q: This is your second year roping with Logan. What makes you two click?
A: Our styles. We have a pretty good catch run for Canadian rodeoing. Our catch percentage is pretty high, and our horses match pretty good.
Q: You two are neighbors at home in Alberta and also in Arizona, where you rope each winter, right?
A: Yes, and we rope together every day, for the most part.
Q: Hit the highlights on your 2026 wins.
A: I’ve won more rodeos this year than I’ve won in my life—Falkland and Dawson Creek, British Columbia; Red Deer, Brooks, Rocky Mountain House, Benalto, Medicine Hat, High Prairie and Grimshaw, Alberta; Regina, Saskatchewan; and Walla Walla, Washington.
Q: How has this year compared to last season?
A: This year’s been better. We caught a lot more and won a lot more. There were only two weekends the entire summer that we didn’t win money, and we set a CPRA regular-season team roping record with $59,664.24 a man.
Q: What do you do besides rope?
A: We have a ranch and farm. We have cows and a feedlot, and we farm corn silage and barley to feed our cattle.
Q: What’s the CFR setup like?
A: It’s very similar to the NFR—fast.
Q: Who’s your favorite team to watch these days, and why?
A: The Grahams, and Kavis (Drake) and Denim (Ross), because they’re the best up here in Canada. Both teams have been trying to make the NFR, and we’re all best buddies and have traveled together a lot.
Q: Which header out there today do you admire most?
A: Probably Kaleb Driggers, because he’s so good in every setup and situation.
Q: What’s job one—the main goal—for Team Bonnett and Cullen?
A: To win the Canadian title. It’s a realistic goal, and we’ve set ourselves up to have a good chance. Our run right now is good, and I feel like I have the best heeler in Canada right now. I just need to make sure I turn him enough steers.
—TRJ—