By JACYLN BURKE
Columnist
When students come to college, the extent of their commitment to college is to feed themselves and earn passing grades.
Then there comes a completely different breed of college students. They are known around town as the rodeo team. They are a little different than most college students.
Thursday nights they can be found at the Backyard Billie’s Goat Roping. As for the rest of the weekend, they are sure to be out of town on the rodeo road.
The commitment rodeo students have is on a whole new level. These cowboys and cowgirls started off their college careers by choosing a school that would be able to support their rodeo needs. Going to college where they couldn’t rodeo was never an option.
Summer ends and they pack everything up, even their four legged athletes. Feed, hay, ropes, roping dummies, saddles, buckets and blankets all get packed into their trailers in addition to everything a normal college kid may require.
Before they know it, they are off to college with trailer in tow. They travel from the west coast, east coast, Canada, Australia and everywhere in between.
Choosing to go to a college that far from home to chase their dreams shows a lot about their character.
Although they have to worry about feeding themselves and passing their classes, they also have their horses to keep in check. The horses’ needs come before theirs, no matter what.
If a person has lab at 2 p.m. and they get a call at 1:15 p.m. saying their horse is injured to the point their anatomy is showing, they drop everything. That test they have to study for the next day, well that flew right to the back burner. The lunch they didn’t get a chance to eat before the incident, stays uneaten. They hook up to their trailer, take the horse to the vet and get them patched up. The time commitment for incidents like this is unreal. Not to mention the financial commitment they must have to pay the emergency vet bills on top of the regular costs of owning such athletes.
Most college students spend all of their spare time watching Netflix. Meanwhile, the rodeo team is out in the practice pen working tirelessly to be the best they can possibly be. They spend countless hours taking care of their animals, practicing and watching their practice runs on repeat. All of that on top of school work. They put a lot of time and money into preparing for their handful of seconds in the spotlight at a rodeo.
All the hard work will either pay off or they will have had one tiny mishap. The mishap will send them walking away empty handed and probably empty pocketed. No matter the outcome of a single rodeo, they head right back to the practice pen until the next rodeo rolls around.
The dedication cowboys and cowgirls have to their sport is incomparable. Although their commitment may seem a little extreme at times, this is their lifestyle and they wouldn’t trade it for anything.
At the end of the day they come home filthy and tired, but with a full heart because they are living their dream. They can’t wait to get up and do it all again the next day.