Rodeo Is Not an Event - It is a Lifestyle

We were practicing roping on Sunday. During the winter in Utah, we have to ride indoors. So we have to haul the horses, the cows and all of our equipment to the indoor arena.

We spent over 4 hours between practicing and hauling horses, kids and cattle back and forth. This is what our life consists of constant practice, chores and traveling to the next rodeo.

We were having dinner on Sunday night with my brother and sister in law who came down to help. As we discussed the days events, my daughter says hey mom when are we going to get a new dishwasher? (Ours broke about a week ago.) My reply was well we have 2 rodeos to enter in March and several more in April. So probably not until next fall.

That is when my sister in law and I both laughed. Rodeo is not an event. It is even more than a sport. It is a lifestyle. You have to live it to understand it. I really had no idea how involved it is until my kids started living it. You sacrifice the nicer things in life to make it to the next rodeo.

Some may think we are crazy and we probably are. We love what we do. We are very close as a family. My kids have learned some amazing lessons about life, sacrifice, competition, and hard work through rodeo. I wouldn't change a thing. (Except to have lots more money to rodeo full time.)

Junior High Rodeo

Brent and his partner are getting ready to Team Rope. We spent another weekend in St George for the Wrangler Junior High Rodeo. Although, the weather was not near as nice as a couple of weeks ago. We spent Friday all huddled together in the stands sharing as many Mr Heaters as we could.

This was not such a great weekend for Brent. His roping was par to poor. Now, I always like people to be accountable for their performance but sometimes there are circumstances. In rodeo, we call it the draw. The draw determines what stock or cow you are going to try to rope, ride or tie. Sometimes the draw is just not in your favor. This was one of those weekends. A lot of times, you will just get one bad draw in a rodeo. It may only be one day and for one event.

This weekend, I think Brent just had no luck at all. He drew 2 really fast calves in the breakaway roping. He roped one at the end of the arena in 8 seconds and took 9th. The other one just out ran his horse and he never got a shot.

So we had a good time seeing everyone but not a very productive weekend. Brent was really disappointed. His practice has been so good. He was sure he was going to do well.

As you can see from this picture, I need a new camera. My really nice had been to one too many rodeos. It finally just stopped working at the Dixie 6 in November. So I need to do some research for one that is rodeo proof.