Arena Tracks by Penny Schlagel: Below the Line

If there’s one thing South Dakota has always done right, it’s youth rodeo.  From being on the ground floor in the National High School Rodeo Association back in the late 40’s through the 4H Rodeo pipeline, to the plethora of National Champions at the High School, Junior High and Little Britches levels, South Dakota cowgirls and cowboys show up to compete from the time they can say, “did you get me entered?”.  It’s spring here in the northland and that means a fresh start with a clean slate and a new shot at the road to national representation.

As a graduate of those rodeo channels, I can honestly say that I got more out of youth rodeo than I put into it.  It gave me a sense of purpose and taught me to care for the horses that carried me.  Through the mental game, I learned to have a game plan and to review my performance with a critical, but not unkind eye.  I met friends that have lasted me through two marriages, a handful of kids between us and the emotional ups and downs of life in a modern society that is not always kind.  Horses made me a better person, but rodeo was only a part of that.  Granted, it is the most obvious part, being public events and all, but the winning wasn’t as important as the preparation and the “trying”. I think that is the true golden nugget that experience has taught me.  Buckles aren’t the point.  They are just visual representations of the point.  The point is to be a better horseman and through that, a better person.

A few years ago I had lunch with the participants at a Paul Tierney roping clinic at Doug Krantz’s barn and arena.  Truth is, I went for a free meal and to rub shoulders with the Legend himself and his son Jess.  After horses were watered and put up, we all sat down to eat and Paul started to speak.  He spoke so eloquently about winning and losing and putting those experiences in perspective.  Paul discussed the mental game of rodeo and the importance of doing the work before the run by conditioning your horse and yourself, researching your draw, watching video of the calf and talking to those that had run him before.  He also discussed losing, as we all do more of that than winning, and the headspace one needs to be in when you walk out of the arena with less joy than when you walked in. If you haven’t been to a Paul Tierney clinic, I highly suggest you go.  It’s good for skill development both as a roper and as a person.

Paul reminded me of a coaching class I took many years ago when I was teaching and coaching in Watertown, SD.  The speaker suggested that coaches should turn the table and look at their job from a different perspective.  He proposed that we shouldn’t have been coaching to win games.  We should have been coaching to create better players, athletes, lifelong sports enthusiasts and at its core, better people. The games were just a chance to check our training, assess our strengths and weaknesses and plan to work out those kinks at practice; pulling together a better team by addressing weaknesses in players and in coaching strategy. Once you thought of coaching that way, the pressure was OFF during the games and they could be dissected with a keen, unemotional eye. The pressure was where it should be: on the training and preparation. The game was the opportunity to show off the skills you’d been honing all week and to have fun doing it. I think that applies to rodeo so perfectly.  It started out that way: a bunch of actual, true blue cowboys who cowboyed all dang day for a living then went to town to put their skills to the test against their cohorts in friendly competition. It was joyful and sometimes raucous. There wasn’t the pressure and animosity that often comes with competition these days.  It was…fun. 

I can attest to missing the point and losing the “fun” in competition. I own a beautiful brown mare named Venus. I love her and just enjoy being in her presence or riding her down the road. We are not winning the rodeos, in fact, we’ve been on the struggle bus for a few years. I tend to over-ride and am a control freak when I compete. Years ago, I went to a clinic with Ed Wright.  When working with me individually, he turned his mic off and said to me quietly, “Honey.  You’re trying too hard.”  I told him, “I always thought I wasn’t trying hard enough.” When we were finished with the lesson, I rode away and cried at my trailer.  In an effort to revise that situation, I spent some time with my friend Chelsie Cunningham who is a top-notch horse trainer. Chelsie worked on me, my skills and my mindset, bringing me back to training with a purpose at home and pitching the reins forward and trusting that training at the barrel races. I stopped avoiding competition and began to look at every run as a chance to test my training and reassess the next week’s riding objectives.  It changed the experience so completely for me that I started to look forward to barrel races, not dread them.  Would it be fun to win the rodeo?  Absolutely.  Could I use a nice big check every trip across the eye?  Boy howdy, could I.  However, for me the point is to focus on the objectives that have always been there:  enjoy the horse, work hard at home, give ’em heck at the rodeos. I’m not saying that winning is bad or that it’s not something to strive for. I’m saying when you focus on the basics and become a better horseman, winning takes less effort. Focus on the fundamentals and they are easier to string together into a competitive run.

As we head into the pressure-filled youth rodeo season where a seat on the National Team bus is prized but often elusive, remember that it’s only a moment in time and should not define the day or who you are as a person or a competitor. There are fifteen events that make up the SDHSRA National Team and there will be 15 kids whose names are below the line defining that team. Fifteen 5th place finishers will pack up their gear, load up their trailer and head home while four of their friends and competitors trot off to the National Qualifiers’ breakfast the next morning.  Fifteen hearts that could be broken or who could choose to pull out the roping dummy when they get home and get started on next year or to work on being a better roper, a better horseman, a better person. It’s your choice which one you will be.  THAT is the moment that defines you as a person. Make it a good choice.