Cowgirl Mom: READY.. SET... GO!!

For the past almost 12 years I have been dreaming of hauling my kids to Jr. Rodeos and watching them compete in the sport I love. Well here we go!! Sierra is almost 12 and she in in her first year of Jr. High School Rodeos. Alaina and Royce are rip roaring to start entering youth rodeos. Motherhood doesn't come easy to me.. never has. I am not one of those "I love every part of being a mom" sort of people. I pull NO punches. Being a mom is HARD WORK. Now I am starting to realize that being a Rodeo Mom is no picnic either. Guess I should have been careful what I wished for.

Courtesy of Zintro

My husband and I are super competitive people we really want our kids to excel at WHATEVER they are doing. It has been for some time and continues to be a personal struggle for me to decide how much to push my kids. How much is too much? If it takes 10,000 hours to master something wow that is a lot of time.

I have had a personal revolution this week. For the past 5 plus years I have been so busy in school bettering myself through education that I have not been a good example of what deliberate practice is and what it takes to be a highly competitive rodeo competitor. Yes, my kids have seen me struggle with acquiring my education and seen my success and failures along the way. But they have NOT seen me put lots of wet saddle pads on horses and have not seen me ride in the pouring rain or 3 layers of coveralls in the snow. They have not seen me fail in the arena and dust off my jeans and get back on. In a way I feel I have failed them as a rodeo coach/mom. And as of today I am about to change all that. I am at the best position in my life with two of the nicest horses I have ever had and am ready to teach my kids, by example, how a winner acts and practices and handles them self. Some would call that selfish of me. So don't get me wrong, I am gonna haul them to Jr rodeo and I am gonna do all it takes to make them winners along the way. But I feel in my heart that the best way to "teach" them to win is by example. If I am out there ridding and working horses and doing all the things necessary it takes for myself to be successful; I feel with much conviction that they will see me do this and without making a conscious choice they will follow my example. I know growing up without a rodeo family that it is much harder to have motivation to go ride or work a horse or practice roping the dummy by myself. But I can tell you my kids are usually right where I am .. for example this morning I am putting my make-up for work and all three are standing in the bathroom door staring at me.. WHY ??? I have no idea, but if this example works in the arena as well if I am horseback that is exactly where they will want to be as well. So last night I dropped my horses off to be re shod and decided that it was time for some serious wet saddle pads on horses at my house... both mine and my kid's. I hope to continue to blog and let you all know how this goes :o) So Ready... Set.. GO!!!!!