Out West Events 2026 | Editorial: How youth rodeo prepared me for life
Growing up, I was privileged enough to have the opportunity to rodeo, from 4-H to junior high, high school, and then college. Now that I’m a parent, I’m in awe at how my parents could afford the horses, rigs, travel, entry fees, and practice stock, but they did. We never had the fanciest horses or trailers, but we made do and knew that buckles were awarded for the fastest time – regardless of the newness of the trailer in which one’s horse arrived.
I’ll be forever grateful that I grew up rodeoing because of the life lessons learned in my formative years, such as:
Be flexible. When I say “flexible,” it goes beyond what a kid might learn competing in youth basketball. I’m talking about the logistics of trying to get eight horses in a six-horse trailer to a rodeo 250 miles away with a pickup cab of teenagers, 12 saddles, two goats, and a roughie picked up on the way. Not to mention the flat tire accrued on the highway.
Lame horses, forgotten headstalls, two siblings up at the same time in two different arenas. All of it makes a person pretty unflappable. Learning how to handle pressure, change plans, and manage expectations at a young age was one of the most invaluable experiences I received.
Hard work pays off. While I competed in every event throughout my youth rodeo career, I really focused on goat tying by the time I got to college. One coach told me, “The thing about goat tying is you get out of it what you put into it.” While horsepower could influence other events, goat tying was all about how prepared the athlete was.
From a young age, I saw the correlation between hours in the pen and winning in the arena. No hour spent working hard was in vain. Eventually, it all came back around. As a general rule, the kids who deserved to win were the ones winning. This is just as true in life. Hard work, even in the wee hours of the morning when no one can see, will bring satisfaction and results.
Sometimes, hard work doesn’t pay off. I know, it’s a direct contradiction to my earlier statement. However, rodeo is very good at teaching youth that sometimes life isn’t fair. Judges make the wrong call, a calf gives a bad trip, the arena gets muddy, and the list goes on. There are so many factors when you put a kid, a horse, and an animal in the arena together.
Ultimately, there is a certain degree of surrender that has to happen in rodeo. No matter how prepared one is, unexpected things happen. Even the best in the world know this. The greatest regular season can be undone by a bad NFR. That’s just rodeo. And that’s just life.
The people matter most. It’s almost cliché at this point, but I truly do believe I could break down in any town in the country and know someone nearby that could help me. Or at least know someone who knows someone.
Additionally, there is nothing like sportsmanship in rodeo. Some of my best friends in high school and college rodeo were my fiercest competitors. We loved it that way, because iron sharpens iron. I still have those best friends to this day. The connections made through rodeo opened up more doors than I could’ve imagined: clients, horse purchases, and even finding my husband. This isn’t uncommon, by the way. Longtime Mitchell Tech rodeo coach, Jimmie Nicolaus, says that the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association is one of the best ways to find a spouse.
Long after the buckles are in cases and our diplomas are received, the friendships last a lifetime. In rodeo as in life, people are the most important aspect.
Best of luck this rodeo season!
