Turns out that one of the truck/horse rigs that I passed leaving Choteau a week ago belonged to Leslie and her husband. I learned to know Leslie almost 30 years ago when she was a Nevada ranch girl turned Carroll College basketball player and a “sports big sister” to Amanda. We’ve remained friends and each other’s champions ever since. She and her husband are community leaders in their small Montana town—as well as the owners of a small acreage with barns!!
In the wake of my essay on the world of rodeo, Leslie took the time and caring to offer her thoughts from inside the sport. As opposed to my arms-length, significantly less-informed, and more anthropomorphic understandings. She’s given me permission to quote some of what she wrote.
“Here are the reasons I choose to rodeo. I suspect some or all of this is true for others. Primarily it is my relationship with my horses, which is something I treasure and that brings me peace and satisfaction. I love the challenge of communicating with them clearly and bi-directionally, caring for them as well as possible (yes, I have a nebulizer for my horse with lung issues!), and training them to perform at a high level. Entering a rodeo allows me to apply pressure to my training and see if it will hold. It also offers a chance to test my skills against tough competition, and even sometimes against those who are succeeding at a professional level. As I’ve aged I’ve found fewer opportunities to compete at all, let alone with a chance to win. I’ve also learned that my horses love it. They will load on the trailer independently and get excited to perform. . . . At this point I have a very competitive barrel racing horse and a competent rope horse, both of which I trained from the beginning, and two young horses in training. This partnership has been incredibly satisfying and challenging. Also, the daily work involved in maintaining this hobby is part of what keeps me drawn to it. It’s dusty or wet, hot or cold, always tiring, and somehow addictive.”
Leslie went on to talk about the parts of rodeoing that are tougher for she and her husband to accept: the evidences of racism and misogyny, the verbal and sometime offensive patter that announcers often spout. But they’ve wrestled with the tradeoffs. And still choose to travel to small Montana towns to rodeo.
I value—very much—the time and thought and caring that Leslie invested in her articulate email. I value the reminder about writing what I honestly know . . . . and our friendship which just got that much richer. ©
