Madison Outhier, 18, showed up and showed out in the final round of the Women’s Rodeo World Championship in the South Point Arena on Friday, Oct. 29, 2021 in Las Vegas.
Outhier blitzed a quick 1.91-second run to win in the final performance and take home her second consecutive WRWC Breakaway Roping World Title and a paycheck for $60,000.
“I get in the zone. I feed on this energy in these stages that we get put on. I feel like that’s why I’ve been able to have success in the AT&T Stadium. I was amped up and ready to go going into that run,” Outhier said. “I knew I had the start down by now. I pushed it pretty hard in the last two rounds, but I was confident. I knew I had to make that throw and it worked out.”
Outhier watched as the PRCA/WPRA breakaway roping world standings leader Shelby Boisjoli put the heat on the pack as the first roper out in the final round with a 2.02-second run and knew that the pressure was on.
“That honestly turns a spark on in me and I get so amped up. When Shelby roped that 2.0, I was like, ‘Game on. You’ll see me back there clapping my hands. I love this. Jade Conner (WRWC standings leader Josie Conner’s dad) calls me ‘the Gamer,’ and I really do think I’m starting to live up to it because I love this stuff.”
The WRWC World Title wouldn’t have been easy without the help of Outhier’s 12-year-old sorrel, Rooster, out of her grandparents’ LA Waters Quarter Horses, based in Utopia, Texas.
“I don’t know what I did to deserve such a great horse,” she said. “I owe everything to him. The only thing that I would change about Rooster is that sometimes he will break wide. My dad has gotten in a habit in the past month of crouching down on the right side of the box. In these positions where we have to be so precise on the barrier, just having a horse break an inch wider to the right I could have broken the barrier right there.”
This win is one for the record books for Outhier as her first big win coming off of the Pro Rodeo summer run where she was down on herself and her roping mentally.
“It’s a God thing. I’m so blessed and so humbled and lucky to be in this position again,” she said. “I was at probably the lowest of my career mentally after this summer and during this summer. Just to see my confidence come back and be able to capitalize on it when I do have that confidence. To have that back like I was when I feel like I roped here last year is an awesome feeling when you’re roping for this much money.”
As the young talent heads back to Texas, Outhier, who is a business major at Texas A&M University, plans on cashing out her check and setting aside some money for her future endeavors.
“This summer was so hard financial-wise. It’s hard. Being in college now too I have a lot of expenses that I’ve never had before. I’m saving up most of my money that I’ve won from the previous years of doing well at (RFD-TV’s) The American and doing well at this rodeo last year and hopefully going to build a business with it all someday.”
