God is Good - Abbea Faris

I can’t believe it is the end of the year already! What a great year the Lord has blessed us all with! I transferred to a different college this year and I absolutely love it! For a while God has been telling me to transfer to a different college, Cheyenne. So, a week before classes started, I transferred here and have loved it ever since! One of my favorite parts is The Roundup Bible Study group. It’s mainly rodeo kids, but the Bible study and the leaders have changed my life and so many others! The Lord is a wonderful one, if you allow Him to be in control and listen to Him. He won’t let me give up and keeps pushing me to achieve my goal of making it to the CNFR this year. Through this training, I try to have a positive attitude, live life to the fullest, have a smile on my face, and share how great the Lord is to everyone around.

 There is much of a difference in my practicing during this time of year. I’ll give my horses a couple weeks off, then I usually still practice throughout the winter, weather depending. At Cheyenne, rodeos ended in early October, but we are still practicing. It has been awesome to get the opportunity to work with other horses besides my good ones. I couldn’t be any happier with how all my horses are working; the good ones and green ones, God is so good! Classes are also going well. When you study something you enjoy, it makes school go by a little easier. I am taking a math, accounting, agricultural records, and an agricultural finance class.

I continuously go to jackpots throughout the year, but rodeos are pretty much over around here. Summer and fall rodeos did not go as planned. I was holding myself back through mental games and went through a slump of being 1 for 10 and it was a break out. The week between the last college rodeo and WRA finals, I finally got baptized. It was something that had been on my heart for the last year and a half, but the timing had never worked out. After being baptized, I felt refreshed, cleansed, a new person. I was confident again and felt myself trusting the Lord and His plan. I went out and finally made a solid run. Also, I was blessed to have a great day at a jackpot and won a saddle in the #9 roping!

Today is a good day for a good day- God Bless!

Putting the Pieces Together - Bobbi York

Rodeo is one of the biggest parts of my life. I live, breathe, and think about rodeo. If I could go to college and major in roping, I totally would. At the end of fall high school rodeo season, I’m sitting in a good spot to make it to nationals, and I am finally roping like I want to be. My school work is going great, I am loving all of my classes, and I’m closer to God than ever before. I mean, it's pretty easy to thank Him when everything is going right. 

During my last fall rodeo, my first calf wasn’t the way I wanted it to be. I threw it in the dirt and my horse didn’t work right, despite all of the time I put into scoring and working on her. After that run, I asked God if this is what I should be doing because at that moment, nothing was quite falling into place. But the next day, I chose to not worry about my last run. I focused on the run I was given at the moment, and it ended up being the best I’ve ever roped. I roped in a 2.4 and my horse was spot on. Leaving the arena, I received countless words of praise and encouragement. I thanked God for putting all the pieces together.

But sometimes, the pieces don’t fit together, and that’s just how God wants it. A month ago my uncle, who helped fill in as a dad in place of my absent one, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Being a Vietnam veteran, he was a hero in my eyes. A hand with a rope, a kind man, and tougher than dirt, he was everything I want to be. But on November 21, his pain and suffering came to end. Throughout it all I prayed for God to heal him. I prayed that God would let him get better. But that wasn’t in God’s plan. Four days after the funeral, my grandma was taken to the hospital with chest pain, rushed to a larger hospital, and put into the ICU. I am still praying for God to heal her; I want God to put all the pieces together. Like my rodeo this fall, I am still wondering if I am doing the right thing. I don’t know if I am praying for their healing, not just for them, but selfishly for me. Unlike that rodeo run, it's a lot easier to thank God for everything when it's all working out for you. However, I am trying to thank Him for everything He has blessed me with. As it says in Romans 8:18, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” Like I said earlier, rodeo is one of the biggest things in my life, but it's not THE biggest. That’s a spot reserved for my Lord and Savior. I try to live for Him, let Him work in and through me, and lean on Him.

Off Season - Hunter Washburn

Well, it's that time of the year again; it is cooling off, and you might be practicing a little less. It's the off season, so what do you do now? Weather permitting, I still practice as much as I can. When I'm practicing at this time of the year, I am working on any prospects I have. This year I have two- a gray mare and a sorrel and white paint gelding. The mare has been roped off of, and she's doing very well so far. I've ran about fifty steers off of her, and she hasn't done much of anything wrong. Her only fault is not running through the hole as hard as she does getting there. 

The paint horse has never been in a box or around cattle, so we are taking things a little slower.  He has come a long way in the last six months. I've ran him by about ten steers and tracked a good number of steers around the pasture and arena. I will continue with what I'm doing, and in the spring I'm planning on jumping off of him.

Working on prospects allows me to work on my horsemanship throughout the winter, so when I come to the start of summer, I'm riding my horses very well. I also sit down and watch old videos, mentally preparing myself, tearing my runs down, and rebuilding my foundation. This is also a good time to let your body heal from the stress and strain of the rodeo trail.

The Lord as shown me numerous things this year and has blessed me in many ways. I’ve stayed healthy this year, and I will be competing in the ACRA finals in a few weeks. I also have some really good horses under me with great people helping me. 

Straight Paths - Rope Myers

  Lynn McKenzie likes to say “clocks like straight lines,” and as a World Champion barrel racer she would know. This phrase also rings true in the other events.  In the steer wrestling the straightest path past the steer is the fastest. In the calf roping we want to break to the pin in order to get straight behind the calf.  In the calf roping and the goat tying we go straight down the rope. In team roping the time stops when both ropes are straight and taught. “Clocks do like straight lines.” 

  One training tool to work on straight lines is to use a rake.  It is a really simple trick, but it will help you to see the path you are taking to the animal and to see if you have straight lines. 

      

              1. Leaving the box

a.      Rake the front of the box and about 15’ in front of the chutes between runs. Then look at your horse’s path.

b.     For calves the tracks should be right behind the calf by about 20’ in front of the chutes.

c.      For steer wrestling your horse’s tracks leaving the box should line up parallel to where you caught the steer.

              2.   Down the rope

a.      For goat tying, between runs rake around the area where you get off of the horse to the goat.  This will let you see if you are running straight to the goat and pinning him on the end of the rope.

b.     For calf roping, rake beside the rope when you are tying from the post. This will allow you to see if you are running straight to the calf, and it will also let you see if you are placing your feet in the right place to flank the calf.

In the practice pen, just like in life, sometimes the best way to see where your problems lie is to look back and see where your footprints were landing. 

“Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.”    Hebrews 12:12-13

Bumps and Slumps- Abbea Farris

This summer the Father had a different plan for me. I started the summer off by entering the same rodeos as I always do and planned on entering more as the summer continued. They all started off great until we hit a bump in the road. My good horse injured itself causing me to enter into what most people call “a slump.” I decided to take some time off and get some good practice in, improve my fundamentals, work, and spend time with my family before I left for college again in the fall. During tough times like this, I just have to remember that everyone goes through slumps in life and to keep my head on straight. Hoping I have worked out some of these problems, I will be going to a few rodeos the last month of summer! I am rodeo hungry and ready to go! 

This summer has also been filled with work and family. I am working construction 35 miles north of town. I have a lot of family that live out there, so it has been very convenient being able to see them more this summer. Every Sunday I’m home, I take my grandpa to church. With work being so busy during the week, then going straight to roping at night, a lot of my time is taken. So you could say, Sundays are our grandpa-granddaughter days. After church, we go out to lunch and simply spend time with one another.

This summer has been difficult at times, but I continue to keep my head up and remember the important things in life. Family is very important, so it has been nice to be catching up with them. But I cannot wait to be competing in rodeos again! No matter what, God is great, and I am blessed and thankful for another day.      

“All things are possible if you believe.” Mark 9:23

A Time for Everything - Bobbi York

I find myself asking “Why me?” a lot. I will humbly admit, I sometimes find that life has given me the short end of the stick. Just like most people, I want life to go my way 100% of the time. But, life never goes that way. I strongly believe that we all have a time in our lives where our entire outlook on life changes. I have had this moment and now I wish I had a tale of an epic rodeo saga where I bravely looked into the sunset finally realizing that this was my purpose in life. But this is not the case. Frankly, this had nothing to do with rodeo and I was at my weakest.

At the beginning of the summer, I would’ve been fine with never roping another day in my life. I had decided that rodeo was petty and selfish. But God had another plan for me. June 12, 2015. I was sitting at the Wyoming High School State finals and a girl on the rodeo team texted me saying…

                Someone in our team got killed in a car accident.

As one can imagine, I began to panic. I ran through every person on my team while I waited for the text telling me who it was. Eventually, I just called her.

Tyler. The Tyler I had known since freshman year. The Tyler that was always there. My next reaction was to call him. Nothing. Again I found myself asking “Why?”, but instead this time I was asking “Why God?” Months pass and eventually I was asked to write this blog on my summer rodeo season, that I wasn’t really doing, and on a God that I was even sure cared.

Slowly, I began to listen to God. I used to think God had never been there or he was testing me. But actually, God was always there for me, I just needed to listen. My dilemma was continuously questioning God about taking Tyler. To be honest, I’m not sure I will ever understand why such an amazing person had to leave us so soon. But to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven (Ecclesiastes 3:1).

In July, I was able to get to see Lily and Sarah at the High School National Finals. When I was there I felt the rush and intensity of it all. From that point on, I knew this is what I wanted. I was driven. I roped every chance and when I wasn’t roping, I was thinking about roping. I knew that I wanted to be there next year and I was going to do everything in my power to get there. But roping is not my purpose; Rodeo is not my purpose.  As it says in Matthew 28:19, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” My purpose is to spread the word of God, living each day to his Glory. Now by no means do I do this all the time and I have my low points. But through everything I have come to realize that I cannot get through this life without God and I try my best to live like he wants us all to.

Maybe Tyler’s purpose was to show us how to be kind and love one another and his death was to make us all realize we need to be kind and love one another. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of Tyler. Think about his smile, his humor, his kindness. But thanks to him I have been able to see a glimpse of the way the Lord wants us all to be. Tyler, like all of us, wasn’t perfect. But he was by far the best person I’ve known on this earth.

As my summer comes to an end, I have won the Wyoming State Fair Breakaway Roping, bought a new rope horse for college, grown closer to the Lord, and am trying to make him proud each day. And each day I think of my friend that has given me so much.

Set Goals and Dream Big - Hunter Washburn

I hope you had a good summer! I had a lot of good runs this year and am looking forward to the last couple months of summer. I went to some pro and amateur rodeos. I'm sitting fifth in the permit standings in the PRCA.  I'm also sitting in the top five in the ACRA rodeos. The goals I've set for myself this year are to make both finals and work on finishing my equine dentistry school. Spending some time setting goals is a great way to motivate yourself. If you fall short, don't give up; try again. Do some things different next time. Learn something every time you nod your head. It's what we have to do to keep moving forward in our goals.


I was told it's okay to dream big if you're willing to put in the work to make the dream come true. I've always wanted to go to the NFR like everyone else, but if I'm going to do that I have to work harder than everyone else. What does it take, you might ask? Well, the truth is I don't know yet, because I haven't been there. What I am doing is working on my finances, I do know that is a big part of it. Along with horse care, vehicle maintenance, my health, and many more things. One day by doing these things I will give myself the best chance to make the NFR, and that's all I can ask for!


Until next time, God bless and have safe travels reaching your goals.