Hello again! I want to welcome you to the Drivers Seat. As you have been able to see parts and pieces of the life of the rodeo cowboy from my eyes I am hopeful you look forward to my ramblings. I am sitting here at 5:30 am in Rapid City,SD getting ready to have a little breakfast before I venture outside to allow the -13 degree morning greet me. I am thinking that this rodeo is a wonderful life and I would never trade it for ordinary. One day we are in Texas in shirt sleeves sweating and fighting the heat and the next we are in coveralls and long johns wondering what were we thinking. Although everyday is a gift and we are not promised tomorrow so lets make the most of what we are given.
As many of you are capable of putting the time line together you know that some things have happened since my last “View” came out. We went to Fort Worth on Feb.1st for the TR and our 2nd go of the TD. The TR was no good for my guys and in the TD we will say he made the best of what he had to work with and left sitting 3rd in 2nd go at that time. All in all we will say that the outing in Fort Worth this year was luke warm at best for our team. That morning on our drive in to the city we discussed and decided that because of the impending weather report it would be best to step up my departure time from Decatur to Rapid from Sunday afternoon to Saturday night to “get ahead of the storm.” That decision proved to be the right one as I enjoyed my drive due to clean roads and no in-climate weather. Although never has there been a trip with out some sort of a hiccup or setback, this particular time in my haste I left the house without my “rodeo clothes”. (starched shirts and Jeans) Lucky for me I remembered them while I was fueling up in town and my wonderful wife was willing to come out at 10:00pm to bring them over to me. So she was my saving grace that night. It wasn’t until many hours and miles later that is struck me I had left my boots as well as my clothes behind when leaving the house. Although like always it worked out my first stop was in Long Island,KS with some truly great friends Clint and Corinne Cox and Clint happens to have the same size foot as I do and he had a new pair of boots that I could borrow as long as they were back for church the next sunday.

2-22-14 I have been absent from my writing for some time and when I found some time this morning on my hands I thought it would be the time to catch things up. So in short Rapid City was a success and the trip back home was made safely even though the weather was not cooperative. Next thing for us was a few days at home to refuel our tanks and do some practicing, before the Wildfire Open to the world. Since then we have been to San Angelo where the first round was not kind to us but the second round will probably reward us for our efforts and we have been to San Antonio (9 X large indoor rodeo of the year) where things didn’t work and Sinton,TX to the SR where we had a very good day. So as of now that is a brief rodeo update.

What has been on my mind lately if talking to all of you out there about my observation around our team and what it is showing me that it takes to climb to the top and then to stay there. When I first talked to ‘The Boss” he joked one day and said ” So with this job there are no days off no vacations and no holidays.” to which I quickly replied ” sign me up twice.” Well little did I know that is the mentality and the kind of work ethic that it takes to rise above and to stay there. We all know that good horses help us along although other than that it takes work good old fashion hard work and try. Day in and day out we get up and move forward and plan around practice and working on anything we can to help us improve. I have never once finished a day and thought to myself I couldn’t have learned one more thing today. It takes hours and hours to accomplish a successful days worth of riding horses for exercise and running a few on the rodeo horses to keep them sharp and also working on the potentials around there they may be the next #1 mount. Not to mention the day to day operations of the ranch everything is a part of it. I have watched with admiration at how the balance of family and business and practice along with relationship (people stopping by to visit) is done around here. When you are as recognized as he is everyone wants a little piece of your time and attention and he is always gracious and engaging no matter what is going on or what is on the agenda. We roll with the punches around there and even thought everyday has a plan we never get overwhelmed when chance changes our direction.

Once again at this point it has been many days since i had time to just sit and write. Now here we are at Houston and it is my first time here and I am so very excited. But before we get to that lets cover a few of the things that have passed us by. We have been to San Antonio, Austin and to Scottsdale for the Champions Challenge. Those are the very best winter rodeos and getting to go to them was exciting. Our luck at them was middle of the road but as always every run is another run you can learn something from and build toward the future. If you spend every day working hard at improving and making yourself the very best you can the end result is having a feeling of accomplishment. I read a quote the other day that said to be the best and to rise to the top you need to have a short memory and persevere. It didn’t mean to forget what is behind you but to not dwell on it and to not carry it forward with you to the next day. 

As we sit here in Houston getting ready for the first performance of our super series I can’t help but be excited because we have worked hard every day and we have been driven to success. At the end of the day “Victory Loves Preparation” and if you have done your work when the opportunity comes to achieve your goals you will be prepared. So as for me it has been busy and constant I never dreamed that there would be so much to learn and trying to take it in everyday is sometimes overwhelming. Whether it is learning better horsemanship or better roping skills or just all around management at the ranch every day is an opportunity to improve. As always I am trying to improve my skills and be more diligent with writing I feel like it will improve when we get to a more normal rodeo schedule.

Again feel free to email me any questions or suggestions @ JOSHSCHLEY80@GMAIL.COM Until next time I hope you all are having days filled with blessings from our Lord and Heavenly Father And once again Good Roping and Gods Blessings.