At the 2025 Cinch RSNC World Finals, four standout ranch sorters—Kody Ward, Aubree Coker, Kara Doornink and Nicki Fuller—won their divisions in the Holiday Auto Group Challenge of the Champions, an elite event featuring the best of the best. The class showcases the highest-earning ranch sorters from the season, with only the top five riders from each division—Open, Amateur, Novice and Rookie—invited to compete. A sudden-death, round-robin format means each contestant rides with every other in their division. Final standings are then based on the total number of cattle sorted in the least amount of time

Nicki Fuller’s season nearly ended before the Challenge of the Champions began.

“I had a horse injury,” said Fuller, who lives in Clark, South Dakota. 

Fuller’s go-to mount, “Ivy,” came up with a suspensory issue last Fall that developed into a splint bone injury that would keep the horse from returning to the sorting pen that season. Fuller put another horse, “Potato,” to work in the interim, but ultimately ended up on a horse Sage Bach encouraged her to try.

“He told me to get on the horse, and I ended up buying her,” Fuller said of the 2016 sorrel mare called “Madonna,” registered as Prima Donna Chic (Smart Chicaway x High Brow Madonna). “My first sorting on her was Mother’s Day weekend.”

Fuller, who also travels regularly to Cinch RSNC events thanks to her eldest daughter’s help behind the wheel, ended up making the Challenge of the Champions by just $75. With just days to go before the start of the 2025 World Finals, she qualified with $16,726.

“I got a text message that I knew for sure I was in,” she said. 

The Rookie round robins turned into a bit of a nail biter with Fuller on the last run in the division needing three to clear the competition, but her game plan remained consistent and simple despite the pressure: 

“Just go and have fun,” she stated.

Ultimately, Fuller, with the help of fellow Rookie competitor Randy Weidner, capped the night with a final run of five to capture the 2025 Challenge of the Champions title, earning her place among the Champions of the Champions.

This article appears in the Summer 2025 issue of The Ranch Sorter, featuring World Champion stories, event recaps, regional results, and more.

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