“Never Give Up” 6|17|15

Bray placing in the average at North Platte, NE
Photo Credit: Katie Cain

Bray and Ote facing the mud
in North Platte
Photo Credit: Katie Cain

We roll into North Platte, NE middle of the night tired, muddy, and wet and trying to outrun the next wave of storms. Majority of the rodeo contestants had set up camp at the North Platte Fairgrounds which is just down the street from the rodeo grounds. With a big slack the next morning, lots of cowboys and cowgirls were already bedded down leaving no stalls available for us late night arrivals. Luckily, good buddies Clayton Haas and Stan Branco had arrived just before not having to fight the delay of playing in the mud, and had already starting making make shift pens out of stock panels left in the Ag Show barn. They had their horses in their big self-made stalls and generously left us their portable panels to make our horses some stalls in and around the “show ring”. We get our “pens” put together and horses unloaded.. (it was definitely team effort) just before the bottom falls out of the sky again. Bray and I look at each other and realize we still have to get the feed out of the trailer as the rain comes down in BUCKETS. Luckily the kids were still sound asleep in their beds in the RV and I couldn’t wait to join them knowing I had to be up in a few short hours for the barrel slack at 8am. Not wanting to waste another moment of sleep, Bray and I ran into the downpour and made dinner for the “boys”. Stalls made, horses fed, waters filled, no clue what time is …. Just know it’s time for bed! We crash out to the sound of rain on the roof!

My alarm starts going off at 6am, seriously felt like I just shut my eyes. A couple of “sleep buttons” later, I get up and drag myself into my clothes and feed the horses at 6:20am. All of the guys are sleeping getting much needed rest… pretty sure a band of trumpets couldn’t have awakened them. I finish my make-up and sip on my freshly brewed coffee. I knew the horses were probably done with breakfast and it was time to trek over to the rodeo grounds. The night before Clayton and Stan had asked to ride Ote the next morning because their great horse Cadillac had come down with an abscess that night in one of his hooves and was a little sore. Of course Bray was more than willing as he has asked the same favor of them in the past. So even though Bray was not running his steers until the following morning, he still got up, got his horses ready and we slowly made our way…. Of course not without our usual stop in the middle of the road, with me directing traffic because we couldn’t make a sharp turn, but “truck driver Bray” always seems to get us out of the pickle and away we go…

I was the first barrel racer in the warm up pen and was enjoying the stillness and the cool Nebraska air. Noah and I had plenty of time to warm up slowly and survey the arena and pattern as they already had the barrels on the stakes at 7:15am. I was impressed the arena looked as good as it did with the amount of rain that fell. Only a few water puddles here and there but overall looked great. I ran my game plan through my head over and over.. “Smooth and correct” I kept telling myself. Although Noah is a finished barrel horse and knows his job, he is new to “rodeos”. So I’m going through what is called the “seasoning process”.. Basically translating into the “first time your horse sees stuff”… new arenas, new ground, new sights to see, ect. Learning how to handle ALL the variables and still do a good job. This can be an “Up and Down” process and definitely requires me as a jockey to be on my game… which also is taking quite the effort as I continue to knock the rust off!

Bray and all of the other Steer wrestlers up that morning start making their way to the warm up pen as their event was directly after the barrels. Bray informs me that Casey Martin stayed back at the rig with the kids until I get done… HUGE HELP! Again… team effort. Well I make my run, and that “game plan” I had didn’t quite pan out. Noah was blessed with an endless “Speed Tank” that sometimes can work as a disadvantage. This big ol’pen gave us PLENTY of time to build up too much speed.. (yes there is such a thing as too much speed). Needless to say the run wasn’t pretty and was chalked up to “the seasoning process”, but not without leaving me a little discouraged and down on myself. I cooled him down and Noah and I went back to the trailer to relieve Casey of “kid duty”. Well.. not much “relieving” going on as all three of them were still “sawing logs” pretty heavily.

I unsaddled and waited for the steer wrestling slack… Casey finally rolled out of bed and made his way to the arena to watch and meet up with Bray and Beau to help out Clayton and Stan. (As you will soon learn from these “Chronicles”… Steer wrestlers travel in “packs” and help each other out in “packs”. You won’t find much “selfishness” in the Bulldogger world.)

Not much time passed and I could hear the times being called out in the steer wrestling. By this time Breely was up and enjoying the morning with me, with Drake, or we like to call him “King Tut”, still asleep comfy in his bed. From the cab of the truck Breely and I have the windows down and are intently listening to times… “Next Up, Stan Branco”… We stretch our ears and can see the boxes from a distance. We see them start then a few short seconds here a holler from the crowd and a time of 3.8 called out. Shortly after Clayton makes his run on Ote and was 3.9. Breely looks over at me and says, “Wow.. Mom! Ote did his job GOOD this morning!” I couldn’t help but smile and think what a blessing Ote continues to be to our family! Bray makes his way back with his boys, “Ote” and “Bam”, and has a big grin on his face obviously proud of them. I start helping him unsaddle and I can’t help but let my discouragement surface again from my run that morning. As I un-boot his horses I simply say.. “I’m really struggling right now and getting discouraged. I could really use some words of wisdom.”… I braced myself for a speech or instruction on how to ride my horse better or toughen up. But he simply looked at me and said.. “Never Give Up” then was silent. I sat there a little shocked. How many times over the last 3 years have I hashtagged “Never Give UP” and how many times have I supported “His” motto of “Never Give Up”? But wow how it slaps you in the face when you’re faced with the actual “Choice” to never give up. At that moment I was once again so thankful the Lord gave me that man. He said “ya know.. we lose at 75% of the rodeos out here. You have to keep going and never give up.” My mind quickly reverted back to all those late night talks while Bray was in a slump and ME giving the pep talk. Lol. Wow the irony… God’s irony. So that was that.. we loaded up and headed back to the fairgrounds for a day of clean up, catch up and laundry before the guys ran their steers the following morning.

Camp Set up



Cowboys' Clothes Line

From all of storms and rain the days before, we had WET LAUNDRY everywhere. The kids played in our makeshift camp, catching nearby frogs and adding to their rock collection, while us adults washed horse boots with the water hose and hung wet clothes and towels out to dry and enjoyed an afternoon nap once chores were done. The next morning the guys had their turn of getting up super early and heading back over to the slack at the rodeo arena down the street. Beings I handled morning chores the morning before and let the guys catch up on sleep, I decided they had it handled and stayed in bed to catch a few extra hours of sleep…. UNTIL… I heard thrashing, banging, and oh.. that stress meter I talked about earlier was going off again. Bray came to the back of the RV where our bedroom resides, and informed me the slide-out on the side of the RV would not slide in and they had to get to the rodeo, so they were catching a ride with Clayton and Stan (ironically the same two guys he helped out the morning before). Clayton and Stan hooked up their rig at 7am and hauled Bray, Casey and Beau along with the horses to the slack. The kids and I got some much needed catch up on sleep and started packing up and cleaning up once we awoke. The guys returned late morning with good news. Beau won third in the second round and he and Bray split 4/5/6^th in the average. The light of victory was quickly overshadowed, however, by the obstacle at hand. How were we going to get the slide-out in so we could head to the next rodeo in Pleasant Grove, UT 9 hours away? As Bray examined the task at hand, he noticed a giant metal bracket laying on the ground and completely out of place. With the look on his face, I knew exactly what it was. Due to the weight of all of our things packed in the RV and the cabinets of the slide-out, the bracket didn’t hold together due to a faulty weld. At this point one might think discouragement would set in or an outside party would be called in to “fix”

the problem but NOPE.. That “Never Give UP” attitude was alive and well and bodies were put into motion. A welding machine was found and borrowed from the nearby Ag Department and put in the hands of my more than capable husband to begin welding the pieces back together.  Stan Branco, a phenomenal horse shoer and blacksmith by second trade, once again lent his services and was shaping the badly warped bracket for Bray to reattach. A few short moments of “Team Work” later, Humpty Dumpty was put back together again and we were loaded and headed down the road to the next one!!! On to “Strawberry Days” in Pleasant Grove, UT.


The boys still muddy from slack working
with the welder



Stan Branco and Casey Martin
working on the bent bracket

 

Lessons Learned:

*Genuine “help” is always returned with genuine “help”

*Obstacles are just a test of dedication

*Never Give UP

 

Have a Blessed Day! It’s a CHOICE! ~N.