A year ago, Oklahoma’s Merrick Moyer split $100,000 at the Hooey Jr. Patriot in the pole bending. In 2025, she’s back to defend her title, first winning the Hooey Jr. Patriot 19-&-Under Pole Bending Semi-Finals March 14.

“It’s not really more pressure, more so just doing my job and remembering it’s for the horse, not more for me,” Moyer said about her return to Fort Worth.

Merrick, 16, and French This Redneck, by Redneck Jet out of French Benefits by Frenchmans Guy, topped the Semi-Finals with a 20.025-second run—even with a stumble on the end pole—for $3,000 and to lock in their spot to the Hooey Jr. Patriot Rodeo Finals March 16. 

“I was mainly just focusing on picking her up and making sure her shoulder was passed the pole before I let her drop down and go the other way,” Moyer said. “She’s strong, so I for sure have to keep my mind on what I’m doing and make sure I’m doing it right. She stumbled on the end pole, but I didn’t really feel it. I saw it in the video more, and she almost actually got the end pole, which I didn’t know.”

Moyer believes the 7-year-old mare she calls “Paris” makes up time between the poles as her speed stands out to Moyer. 

“She’s really fun, and she’s kind of a fluke on the ground, but she’s a great pole horse,” Moyer said. “She’s also a good barrel horse, so we plan on breeding her a little bit and maybe getting some babies out of her.”

In 2024, Moyer advanced to the Hooey Jr. Patriot Rodeo Finals and won third to come back to the $100,000 Bonus Round. In order to put her name in the hat, she had to beat the time of the winning run from the 15-man round. She did just that with a 20.256-second run that made her the first contestant eligible for the $100,000 bonus. The eventual $50,000 she would split brought her total earnings to $60,500. She never thought she’d have the opportunity to run for that amount of money, especially in the pole bending.

“You can run barrels for that at The American and a lot of other things, but never poles,” Moyer said. “This is about the only place you can win that in the pole bending.”