Roping!! - March 29th

I grew up in a rodeo family. I barrel raced, pole bended, and break-away roped in high school, and competed for a year in college. I learned how to team-rope my senior year of high school. I was a header and my sister, Maysi, was my heeler. My parents train all their own horses, so we never had a shortage of a good roping or barrel racing horse. They still train all their own horses to this day.

I LOVED growing up on horses and going to rodeos. I also loved competing. But, it was hard to keep a horse when I was single, and even harder here in Alaska. As a result, it's been YEARS since I roped...and even more longer since I team-roped. I don't think I've roped since before I got married.

However, my dad decided he was going to team rope and needed a header. I wasn't really excited about it, b/c it had been so long, so I kinda used the excuse it was too cold to rope. But, when The Bug decided he wanted to go outside, my dad promptly caught the heading horse, Chance, and his heeling horse, Jazzy. This left me zero excuses to not rope.

He promised me there were no expectations, no pressure. It was just for fun. Which is a big thing for my dad...b/c growing up roping with him it was very seldom "just for fun" when you were in the arena. :) But he was right. It was just for fun.

Out of the 10 steers we roped...I turned 7 of them.

I caught, dallied, and turned 7 out of 10 steers for my dad.

I haven't roped in over 5 years.

I HAD SO MUCH FUN!!!

My mom took the pics as she was running the chutes. After I got done, my mom wanted to rope a few as well. Yup...the WHOLE family ropes. The last two pics are of my parents. I had to take a pic of them roping...how cool is that? Then I took The Bug for a ride on Chance. He was quite content on the horse. I'm gonna have to get a horse again someday. I sooo want my children to grow up with some of the same fun experiences I did.