Not long ago, you were more likely to find Karrigan Cagley heads up with her bovine adversaries in the arena than chasing them. Today, the cutter turned breakaway roper is making her way up the World Champions Rodeo Alliance (WCRA) Leaderboards.
Climbing the WCRA Leaderboard
The Louisiana cowgirl is firmly inside the top ten in pursuit of a position at Rodeo Corpus Christi to be held May 6-10, 2025.
Cagley is ahead of such breakaway superstars as 20-time WPRA World Champ Jackie Crawford and National Finals Breakaway Roping (NFBR) qualifier Jordan Jo Hollabaugh, a fact that seems as surprising to the upcoming superstar herself as to anyone.
A Late Start with Rapid Success
“I rode cutting horses my whole life so I got a late start at roping,” Cagley notes. “I didn’t start until the summer before my senior year in high school.”
“That’s been my biggest struggle mentally, just that I felt behind because I didn’t get to rope all through junior rodeos and high school.”
Her path into cutting was paved by her mother, a former competitor who jumped back into the arena when her youngest daughter showed interest in horses and competing. Cagley proved a natural talent and won the 2015 Junior Youth World title, eventually earning induction into the National Youth Cutting Horse Association Hall of Fame in 2023.
But a new relationship provided a turning point in her competitive career as she found a new passion in breakaway roping.
“My boyfriend was a roper and I started roping off his calf horse,” she said. “He and his dad got me started.”
Bryce Graves is a Southeastern Circuit Finals champion in the team roping and his dad, Frank, is a former college champion and National Finals Rodeo (NFR) qualifier.
Cagley was hooked and though she says she still loves cutting, her busy schedule only permits one discipline at this time.
“If I had more time, I would love to still cut but I’m not willing to prioritize it over roping.”
Balancing College and Rodeo
Cagley is a student at Pearl River Community College in Poplarville, Mississippi where she competes on the rodeo team for Coach Graves. She’s already got an accounting degree in hand and is finishing up a second degree in marketing.
“Mr. Frank talked me into coming back,” she said.
“I was thinking about going for a CPA but rodeoing is really taking over,” Cagley admits with a laugh. “With a lot of marketing going into social media . . . maybe there’s a way to combine that while rodeoing. That would be ideal.”
Along with Bryce, Cagley spends most of her free time hosting kids’ rodeo camps, teaching breakaway roping, tie down, team roping, barrel racing and pole bending. With four older sisters and a slew of nieces and nephews, working with kids come naturally.
“I’m the baby by twelve years,” she joked. “Mom spends most of her time now hauling a bunch of grandkids to Little Britches rodeos. The last one, there were four girls and twelve horses!”
She and Graves host four kids’ camps across the summer and several during the year on school breaks.
“We just had one for Mardi Gras — all of Louisiana basically shuts down so the kids are out of school.”
Big Goals on the Horizon
Apart from studying and helping the next generation, Cagley is working on big rodeo goals too.
With just a few years of competition under her belt, she has already made a splash, qualifying for her local regional associations’ finals, winning a go round at the 2024 Women’s Rodeo World Championship (WRWC) and competing at the College National Finals Rodeo.
She’s planning a summer rodeo trip out west in hopes of qualifying to big winter rodeos in 2026.
“I wasted my rookie year, it was the first year they were having breakaway at the circuit finals and I wanted to go,” Cagley admitted. “Mr. Frank told me to wait because I had just started roping then and I should have listened! But, I’m glad I’ve gotten to experience everything I have so far.”
Among those experiences was a trip to Rodeo San Diego back in January, an invite she earned by leading the WCRA’s Virtual Rodeo Qualifier (VRQ) Leaderboard.
“San Diego was awesome,” she said. “Definitely a highlight of my roping so far. I wish I hadn’t been so nervous but what an experience.”
Cagley nominates her regional rodeos and ProRodeos in the Southeastern Circuit through the VRQ.
“I nominated a couple of the amateur finals around here. Those are Division 1 events and I won first at one and second at the other so I got a lot of points there,” she said. “The ProRodeos are just starting up around here and I won second at one in Florida too.”
“So, it’s going along pretty nicely lately.”
Cagley got interested in the opportunities presented by the WCRA through the VRQ when she decided to take a shot at qualifying for Rodeo North Carolina in Tryon, which was supposed to be held last October but was canceled due to the effects of devastating hurricanes which hit the region just weeks prior to the rodeo. The WCRA rolled points earned toward Rodeo North Carolina toward the Rodeo Corpus Christi leaderboard.
“Then I realized they take a lot [fewer contestants] to Corpus than they do to Tryon so I started nominating more,” Cagley said.
Rodeo Corpus Christi will be the qualifier for the WCRA’s Free Riders team to Kid Rock’s Rock N Rodeo (KRRR) and will use the KRRR drag race light start in place of a traditional barrier.
“Bryce and I have been working on a strategy to set up something to practice that,” Cagley explained. “My horse is really good in the box and I talked to Marcus Theriot and he said that’s really the key to it, so hopefully it’ll go well.”
A Winning Partnership
Short N Shy Cat, aka Maverick, is Cagley’s go-to equine partner. He was trained by NFR roper Brad Goodrich and NFBR average winner Cheyanne McCartney rode him at her circuit finals rodeo.
“I reached out to her about buying him,” Cagley remembers. “I ran three calves and said, he’s the one for sure. He’s awesome and gives me a chance every time.”
Cagley is also working toward a World Championship in the Challenger Breakaway along with another berth to the WRWC.
“They left me a challenger and I’m very excited for that,” she gushed. “I’m winning that by 1,000 points so I’m going to try for that bonus.”
“That would be absolutely awesome. That’s the goal.”
