The subject of how to get through the struggles of a rodeo season couldn’t be a better topic for my first blog. This year has been the worst of any year so far for me as far as struggling and having to get through obstacles. My left hand isn’t like it used to be, I’ve had more trouble than I ever have with my horses being sound, and I’ve failed in high easy money situations that I usually don’t let get away.
Number one has been dealing with my hand issue that I did at the NFR last year. Trying to hold my reins different and get them and my coils to feel comfortable has been an uphill battle all year. It’s gotten so uncomfortable for me that I feel like I’ve literally had to re learn how I go about setting up my shot because the balance of holding myself up and over my horse feels really off. Without being able to grip like I used to and having to squeeze harder makes my hand cramp up if I hold it too long. So sitting in the box I’m thinking about trying to time that out right and it’s got my mind away from where it needs to be which is thinking about watching the cow. I’ve roped and rode position so bad this year that I can’t put into words how thankful I am to have what I have won. I’ve ran into steers, I’ve missed UN missable steers and I’ve failed at EVERY one of the places that mean the most to me and also had the biggest failure of my career at the BFI.
So how do you get through all of those things? You have to control your mind and your negative thoughts that it might go bad again. The head games of rodeo can do unbelievable things when it’s in the lead. But how you choose to handle it is the beauty of it. YOU get to choose. You can let it beat you down to your last breath, or you can stand up and fight and do whatever it takes to get the control. I’m a firm believer of work ethic. If you work harder and run more steers than you can get a header/heeler to rope with you that day, you at least have given yourself a chance. Also having a support team that believes in you is a big part of a teams success. If you or your partner mess up and you and/or the members of yours/their family are upset with you. It makes it even twice as hard to do good.
The BFI was the worst and the best thing that probably has happened to me. Ya I’ve never missed for that much money before but guess what? I also didn’t die from missing that steer. I know that I’ll get another chance at it because I worked hard enough to get one so if I’m going to work harder now then I should definitely get another one.
My point to this story is no matter what we do we’re going to have ups, downs, rights and lefts. So ride the wave whatever way it goes and keep moving. The wave is easy to ride when your winning, but it can be dangerous when it’s going bad. I get as mad as anyone when I do bad and a lot of people don’t understand why sometimes because they say hey, there’s another one tomorrow! Well if we’re going to ride the wave and I don’t do my job enough times then that’s when you fall. I have very high expectations of myself to do good because I want to catch two feet no matter what. On top of that there are two wives, five little boys and one other guy depending on me to do my job. So if you are ok with yourself when you don’t do your part, then do you and your partner a favor and rope with someone who is also doing it as just a hobby. Think about riding a wave. If you go against and fight it, you’re going down. But if you can do what it takes to ride it when it’s going against you the same way you did when it was going good, you shouldn’t have any struggles at all because no matter where the wave is going you go with it!
Hope you all understand what I am getting at and I appreciate you reading my blog. Good luck to all and enjoy the ride!
