The sport of barrel racing can be such a roller coaster ride. One day you’re on cloud 9 – you have that confidence in your horse that no one can outrun him. You’re bullet proof. The next day, some little detail goes awry and there you are, kicking the dirt, ready to hang it up and collect rare coins, take up scrap booking, fly-fishing or golf, anything but run the barrels! I’m pretty sure that I’m not the only one out there who has experienced the discouraging lows and the addicting highs.

I believe the mark of a true winner is the ability to regroup. You hear it a lot, “to be a winner you have to know how to lose.” True, but how much fun is that? Who wants to learn to lose, seriously? As a barrel racer, you must be prepared for the days you do not win first. In order to cope with it I don’t believe a person can care too much about what other people think. You really have to take your ego out of it and that is such an ongoing thing. It’s a tough thing. No one wants to look silly, but there will be days…I guess therein lies the great challenge of why we do this. And if you don’t step out of your comfort zone, if you don’t challenge yourself, I don’t believe that the opportunity to get better will always be there.

People can say whatever they want about barrel racing and barrel racers, but I’ve decided that a person must be courageous to participate in this sport for the long haul, particularly if you’re in it to train horses that maintain their longevity. I really have to hand it to those trainers who turn out the nice, solid, mentally and physically sound horses year after year after year (in any discipline really). Especially the ones that other people can ride and enjoy later. The individuals who are capable of training that type of solid horse have struck a great balance. They’ve learned to make it all about the horse instead of all about the trainer and the trainer’s ego and need to look cool. Figuring out what is in the best long-term interest of the individual horse takes a great horseman. It takes knowing when to ask and when to back off, when to add pressure and when to release. Sounds easy right? It might be if every horse was the same, but they’re not. Horses are the very best teachers, you just have to really, really listen to them every single day.

I don’t think anyone out there doesn’t want to win. Even though the 4D system has changed the complexion of the sport over the years, people still do this because they want to win something. It’s also been my observation that the fastest run is the most thrilling. There’s a drive there to be the winner, to be better and it varies with each individual and their current skill level, but I think the greatest days in our sport occur when we push ourselves to bring the very best out in our horses, and in so doing become better horseman.

Until next time, run your race and be your best.

“He ran not for crypto-religious reasons, but to win races, to cover ground fast.” – John L. Parker Jr., Once a Runner

Although normally my favorite blog topics revolve around horses or barrel racing, I’m taking a departure this time around to the world of professional bull riding.
This past weekend I had the good fortune of returning to my roots in a sense, at least my professional roots. In around 1997, early 1998 I was looking for a career change. “Career” hadn’t up until that point really characterized my job history. I always had a job, and I like to think that I always worked pretty hard but I hadn’t really found my niche, or what you would call a definite career path. Then I got a call from Ken Henry at the Professional Bull Riders, Inc., a then fledgling organization than no one really knew too much about, including me. I was engaged to be married to a bull rider by the name of Scot Wheatley, who was on the PBR Tour. I went into the PBR office and met with the CEO, Mr. Randy Bernard, and basically told him that I sure needed a good job, I liked bull riding and that, in my humble estimation, the PBR was a very exciting thing. Presto, I was hired. Sometimes being young and dumb is such a huge blessing.
Looking back, I know now that it’s really quite impossible to waltz into the corporate headquarters of most any sports property and leave with a job, particularly one that would morph into a great career. But almost magically, my enthusiasm and work ethic got me hired on the spot and I embarked on what would turn into a 10-year journey with the PBR. I probably need to mention that when I started at the PBR I think there were about 10 total employees and the office consisted of half of one floor of the US Bank Building in downtown Colorado Springs, Colo. In the beginning, I worked in the entry department and I will tell you that everything was done by hand, from statistics to entries, in what I would describe as an arduous process.
Fast-forward a dozen years. I attended the PBR’s prestigious Ring of Honor Celebration on May 15 at the Pueblo Convention Center, which sits caddy corner to the PBR’s new state-of-the-art headquarters. The building is stunning and sits in stark contrast to the small office space where I interviewed with Randy all those years ago. It was great to rekindle some old friendships as I’ve been on the outside of the PBR world for quite a while now. Leaving that microcosm has definitely given me some great perspective. It was awesome to listen to PBR founders Ty Murray and Cody Lambert talk about how far the organization has come in such a comparatively short time, and very cool to know that I was in some small way a part of that. I listened intently to Randy and fellow Ring of Honor recipient Jim Sharp talk about what this distinction means to them; it was all quite inspiring and there is so much more I could add here about the Ring of Honor, the history of the PBR and the stories of these deserving recipients. I will tell you though that the one who really stole my heart that afternoon was the first recipient of the PBR’s inaugural Sharon Shoulders Award – Mrs. Tiffany Davis.
Named for the wife of seven-time world champion bull rider and rodeo icon, Jim Shoulders, this award could hardly be personified more appropriately or gracefully by anyone but Tiffany. She gave a speech that knocked everyone’s socks off that day – she’s met with a lot of challenges in life, but her speech didn’t dwell on those things. Instead the speech was humorous, gracious, classy and above all it was extremely positive — just like the speaker herself. What I took from listening to Tiffany is that there are people in this life who stick. You run into a lot of them out there who don’t. But those individuals who take the hand their dealt and play it to win are true heroes in my book. Problems and challenges for them are not someone elses fault and they don’t dwell on those circumstances to the extent that it makes them cave in, give up on life or become embittered and nasty people. People like Tiffany suck it up and overcome. And at the end of the day they can look you in the eye.
For those who don’t know the history, Tiffany is the wife of former world champion bull l rider Jerome Davis, who became paralyzed in a tragic bull riding accident in March of 1998.
Like Jerome was quoted as saying, “I tried to run her off [after the accident] because I didn’t want her to have to go through all of that because she was too good of a girl. But she would have no part of that. As it worked out, she didn’t want to go anywhere. Since then, she’s taken everything in stride, and it takes a special person to be able to do that.”
Tiffany Davis had a chance to duck out. She had a chance to move on with her own life, but she committed to making a life with her high school sweetheart and she wasn’t about to take any easier pathway out of her circumstances. Not only that, but at the Davis Ranch its not uncommon for Tiffany to have 15 or 20 kids around every Tuesday evening as she gears up to get them all to Cowboy Church. I love people who stay hooked.
Incidentally, Tiffany Davis is not only a fantastic and down-to-earth role model, but an avid horsewoman and a barrel racer too. Perhaps one day she’ll consent to me writing more about her inspiring story in the pages of Barrel Horse News, but for now you can read a little more about the Davis family at this link: www.pbrnow.com/release. I hope they lend as much perspective to your day and your life as they have to mine.

I’ve always been an avid reader and I’ve always been horse-obsessed, from the time I could talk, walk or ride – all of which happened in pretty close succession. I read and write for a living. Not only that, but I read for recreation whenever time allows, just like I ride whenever it’s at all possible. I read so much, in fact, that my husband has a theory that my head’s going to explode one day from too much reading. Well, yeah, ok, the threat of that happening is not going to derail or slow down the pace of my reading. With kids’ activities, work, horses to ride, daily chores, etc., I find less time to read for enjoyment than what I used to, but somehow I managed to finish a classic here lately and I wanted to share a piece of it. It only took me about three years from start to finish, but J. Frank Dobie’s The Mustangs was a fulfilling journey of a book and I savored every word. Each stolen moment devoted to turning a page was well worth it and I recommend the book to anyone whose obsession with the horse runs as deep as my own.
Here is an excerpt wherein the young cowboy turned author, after tracking the history of the ancient horse to its rise and influence on Western civilization, describes a horse from his youth — the horse.

“All the old-time range men of validity whom I have known remembered horses with affection and respect as a part of the best of themselves. After their knees begin to stiffen, most men realize that they have been disappointed in themselves, in other men, in achievement, in love, in whatever they expected out of life; but a man who has had a good horse in his life – a horse beyond the play world – will remember him as certitude, like a calm mother, a lovely lake, or a gracious tree amid all the flickering vanishments. I remember Buck.

“He was raised on our ranch and was about half Spanish. He was a bright bay with a blaze in his face and stockings on his forefeet. He could hardly have weighed when fat over 850 pounds and was about 14 hands high…What he lacked in toughness, he made up in intelligence, especially cow sense, loyalty, understanding, and generosity…While riding in boyhood and early youth, I fell in love with four or five girls but told only one. She was right in considering the matter a joke and thereby did me one of the biggest favors of my life. All those rose-lipt maidens and all the light-foot lads with whom I ran in those days have receded until they have little meaning. Buck, however, always in association with the plot of earth over which I rode him, increases in meaning. To remember him is a joy and a tonic.”

I struggled with what passage to share with you here as there were so many great ones, but I hope the one I chose imparts the heart I found in this book. It’s difficult in words to describe the impact of a true and honest horse, unless you’re a wordsmith the caliber of Dobie I suppose. But if you have a horse or a barrel racing related experience you’d like to share, please feel free to post your feedback in the new Barrel Horse News blogosphere. Our staff thinks this will be a great place for all of us to get to know each other better. Welcome!