I ask myself a lot, "Where would I be if I didn't rodeo?" The answer is probably at a different college, with not as many friends that I consider family. My college rodeo team is in some ways like a family. And for us Southern Arkansas college rodeo athletes, there's somethings only we understand to be true!
1. We love our barn, but we hate cleaning it!
Going to the bulletin board to see whose cleaning group you are in, with the hopes it's a group everyone will clean. Every week we get a new cleaning group, and that group cleans the whole barn! With 60 horses in one barn! It gets dirty fast, so we sweep the whole barn every night. Once again, better hope it's a good group you're in or you could be cleaning the barn all by yourself all week!
2. Where you get your turnout stall(s) is important!
You want to be close to the water hose! My turn out last year was far away from the barn and let me tell you, driving back and forth with water buckets gets old when you know if you had gotten closer you could just use the water hose.
3. We love our arena.
If we aren't in there riding, then you can bet we just got done and we're laughing. It's the place where even if we are all fighting for the space to practice we make it work. I can almost guarantee that if the ropers are practicing then there's music playing. If we all aren't there, then we may be on our way and maybe with an armadillo that you say is your new friend. (Some will know if they were there.)
4. There's always someone at the barn.
No matter the time of day or night most likely someone is at the barn. Sometimes it's just team members getting ready the ride or feed. Sometimes it's someone roping the dummy, trying to kick the broom, or doing parkour. You never know when you start to walk in.
5. We can't wait for college rodeos to start.
We have five rodeos a semester. When the schedule is posted, we can not wait to jump in the ring with our hauling partners and head out to a rodeo.
We wouldn't change the life we have chosen to live. We love everything about it, the competition, going all over the country and meeting all new people. Our sport is unlike any other and we wouldn't have it any other way!
