What gives you an adrenaline rush? Is it playing a region play-in game for basketball or even a hard kill in volleyball? My adrenaline rush is breakaway roping. Breakaway roping has been a part of my life for a long time just like horses and rodeo.

I have been around rodeo my whole life. Ever since I was little, I always wanted to be around horses and the people who came out to practice at our indoor arena.

I’ve been riding horses with my parents, since I was still in diapers. My first ever horse was a Buckskin Welsh pony named Bucket that I taught to do barrel racing, pole bending, and goat tying, and I even roped my first ever calf on her. Even though we weren’t faster than the other girls on their seasoned barrel horses, we still had fun doing our events.

In fourth grade I got an old Palomino breakaway roping horse to learn on. His name was Trigger, and he taught me a lot of good horsemanship which I use today for roping. I caught my first calf ever at a rodeo on him. Even though he was grumpy sometimes we still made a pretty good team.

These two horses gave me the building blocks I needed for where I am today.
Rodeo has taught me more things than any other sport will. Sportsmanship is one of the biggest things I’ve learned. You lose a lot in the beginning, but you must keep a smile on your face every step of the way. Not every run is going to go your way, but that’s ok because you keep working harder to do better than the last time.

Stay humble and always help those that don’t have the same opportunities you have. Not everything is the horse’s fault. You must take accountability of your actions and learn from your mistakes. Your horse will mostly always give you their best, which in return you must do yourself. Rodeo comes with a lot of discipline. If you want to do the best, you must do the best in the practice pen. If you do average in the practice pen that’s what will come out at the rodeo.

Accomplishments can be big and small in rodeo. You may accomplish small goals by doing something right in a run, to big goals like winning a state junior high title in breakaway roping.

I’ve accomplished a lot of big and small goals in breakaway roping, as well in my other events. Some of my big accomplishments is winning a North Dakota Junior High state title in the girls breakaway roping in 2020. Before that big state title, I placed third in the breakaway roping my 6th grade year. My 8th grade year wasn’t a good year, but I promised myself I was going to comeback to high school rodeo and do better. I can say I accomplished that goal; I came back to the short round fourth in the standings at finals. I missed my calf which dropped me down to not qualifying for nationals. I was bummed, but that’s rodeo. I told myself on the way home, “I won’t let this happen ever again.” I didn’t have a good summer at NDRA and Rough Rider rodeos, but I was getting myself prepared for high school season.

Besides working on roping all summer, I worked on my other events. I worked on goat tying to make every part of my run faster. I had been on a tipping streak in the pole bending. I set a goal to work on a certain part of my run every time. The time the first high school rodeo came along my first run in the year had been a clean run. I had been so happy with myself I could not stop watching the video.

People ask me why I listen to music before my run. There are two reasons to that question. The first reason is I have a horse that feels every nerve in me. When I get nervous, he gets nervous. When I get jacked up, he gets jacked up. I love that horse to pieces, but I’ve just had to learn to ride him right, and to keep him calm or he won’t go into the gate. I’ve learned a lot of good horsemanship with that horse. He has taught me how to ride hard, and that it is ok to make a bad run. The second reason is to get me focused to do my run. It gets me pumped up and to let the adrenaline run through my body. Who needs a red bull when you can use music to get you going. That adrenaline rush you get while you are doing a run is the best feeling ever.

The best adrenaline rush is when I’m roping. The feeling of your legs and feet tingling before you back into that corner. Everything zones out, and it’s just you, the horse, and the calf you’re going to rope. That moment you know you caught the big rush begins. As soon as that rope pops off, it’s like slow motion. You look behind you to check to see if you broke the barrier. Everything zones back in, and you can hear everyone cheering for you.