Ever since I was a little girl riding my pony in my backyard, I knew horses would always be a big part of my life. Growing up I had the advantage of having a mother who had ridden horses all of her life. My sister and I were raised on horses, riding almost every day of the week. My horse got me through school, dating, prom and graduation. During that time I rode in a rodeo almost every weekend. My biggest accomplishment at that point was making it to state finals in high school rodeo on a horse I trained myself. The first memory I have of understanding barrel racing was when I watched the National Finals Rodeo on television. I turned to my mom and vowed that I would ride in the NFR when I grew up. Well as it often does, life got in the way. During my second run at the high school finals my horse pulled a muscle during the last turn. He was put out to pasture for a few months rest. That fall I went on to college and in the next few years I moved, married the man of my dreams and we had a little girl of our own. Through all of this I would still ride, but did not compete. My life got too busy for the one thing I was truly passionate about.
At a recent family get together at my parent’s house my sister and I slipped away and took a relaxing bareback ride through the woods where we grew up. After talking about our goals in life and our old dreams we made a life changing decision; we are not letting our dreams get away from us. We made an agreement to help each other accomplish what we had dreamed about doing so many years ago. We are making time to go after our dream. We are going to hit the road and try our hardest to qualify for the NFR. Now we know this will take lots of hard work, time and more hard work. It will be a few years before we actually get on the road to travel around to enough rodeos to qualify. We mapped out a plan that we can both adhere to and that plan started that day. Now I know that we may never actually make it to the final round in Las Vegas, but when the day comes that I can no longer swing my leg over a horse’s back I don’t want to have any regrets or “what if’s”.
If you are spending your days in an office staring out of the window while you wish you were at the barn instructing a class, riding in a long-distance race, or even competing at top level shows don’t just dream. If you take a look at your life, there is a way to make it work. How many people dream big as a child/teen only to let work get in the way? Start taking small steps now to work your way towards at least reaching for your dream. You may have to make a few sacrifices now, but isn’t your dream worth it?
