Sonny Heffernan grew up in the bull riding arena. His uncle Cody is a two-time Australian PBR Champion and the rest of his family has dabbled in it including Lane Heffernan who is also in the Rising Star division of the PBR Junior Academy. So it’s no surprise Sonny is only 11 years old and making history.
His father has worked at Hunter Valley Operations (HVO) for more than 20 years, and on weekends in between shift work he has taken Sonny to bull riding events since he was 5 years old.
It’s paid off because Sonny is about to mark his 50th consecutive PBR Junior Academy event at the PBR Caboolture Invitational, the first rider in Australia to ever reach that milestone in the PBR Junior Academy.
From his 49 events and 50 buck outs with the PBR academy, Sonny has covered 33 bulls, making the whistle more than two-thirds of the time with 30 of those rides placing in the top five including eleven wins.
Not bad.
Sonny’s talent was obvious from as young as five when he was selected to head overseas and compete in the International Mini Bull Riding Association World Finals in Las Vegas. He finished in 11th position.
“I love everything about bull riding, the thrill and the excitement of getting on a bull and trying to hold on,” Sonny said.
“Las Vegas is the coolest place I have ridden a bull so far.”
PBR Australia Junior Academy has four divisions, Pee Wee, Junior, Senior and Rising Star. Sonny has moved through the Pee Wee division and is now in Junior after starting his PBR journey in 2022.
“My first year in the PBR I was leading basically the whole year and lost the title by 2.5 points and funnily enough that same year Cody won his title by 2.5 points.
“The following year I came third and then I won the Pee Wee title last year,” Sonny said.
In 2023 and 2025 Sonny got to experience the PBR Origin event riding for NSW.
“It was so much fun.
“One kid from your state gets chosen in each division. So, there were four junior academy kids on each team. I bucked off one and rode the other two.”
An event that is even closer to his heart than competing on the NSW team was in Maryborough last year where he, his Uncle Cody and cousin Lane all won their divisions, taking home a trifecta.
There’s no stopping Sonny, after his 50th consecutive ride at Caboolture, he will jump on a plane and fly to the International Mini Bull Riding Association (IMBA) World Finals in Ogden, Utah.
It is a huge achievement with only Sonny and Lane selected to head over from NSW.
Sonny’s whole family is supportive of his riding, and his dad says HVO has been incredibly understanding.
“We work a lot of weekends, so I am very thankful they’ve allowed me to take the time off to take Sonny where we need to go,” he said.
