Cowboy Christmas

I have been competing in the sport of rodeo for almost twenty years. I still have never lost my love for the sport, but because I do like so many sports I have not had as much time to dedicate towards rodeo in the last couple years. This summer my rope horse Katie is in her prime so I decided to take advantage of her an try and ride and rope as much as possible. I love to barrel race as well and have done that longer than I have roped, but I had to put my barrel horse down this winter (RIP Dapples I love you!) I have been running my sisters young horse so that has been fun. This last week I decided to dedicate my week and weekend to rodeoing a bunch. The month of July starting around the fourth is what cowboys and cowgirls call Christmas, because there are so many rodeos and people try to compete in as many as possible. I do not have a ton of time to do so, but I decided to compete four nights in a row with the help of my loving parents I was able to make it work. I started with Wednesday night in Jackson and just competed in Breakaway, for those who have never heard of the sport you do not have to throw the calf down. We have a piece of grocery string tied to our saddle horns along with some type of flag, I use a bandana. When you catch the calf it then break lose from the saddle horn, sounds easy right? Not exactly you have to not leave the box to soon or you get a ten second penalty, also you have to take into consideration that the calf is not going to do exactly what you would like. They are very unpredictable, anyways the first night I caught my calf in 3.6 seconds and placed third which was a great start to my cowboy Christmas. The next night I was up in Pinedale, Wy for their annual Rendevous Rodeo. These calves were huge and slow, which made them hard to catch and easy to break out of the box to soon. I happened to time this one perfectly and roped the calf in 4.6 seconds which won me the night, I was stoked. Now all I had to do was go for the average, which was the combined of all three nights, it is kind of like a big mountain competition. The following night I missed my first loop, but because everybody is gunning after the average you can pack two loops. (you can see it tied onto my horse in the photo.) I caught the calf on my second loop which only dropped me to second in the average. The Championship round was the following night and I knew if I could just catch my calf I had a chance at the average money. I ended up getting that 10 second penalty, but was able to come out in second in the average and make myself some cash. Overall a very successful and fun weekend! I wish I had more time and money to do more because it is so much fun.,