Well Worth It
Hello,
Have you ever been to Phoenix, AZ. In the winter? If not you should! The desert is warm and beautiful and people that love to rope bring there horses and spend the winter roping and enjoying life. My wife calls it adult Disneyland and I think that fits perfectly. I have been going to phoenix since I was 17 so I know my way around the valley and I think when I was about 21 I started putting on a roping schools in Jan or Feb. and I still conduct that school. I don’t remember what year it was but my hair was still black and I had a lot of it so just going by that it was awhile ago. I got invited to a breakfast meeting with Gene Rice. He was and still is a very powerful business man and more important than that a tremendous individual. If you have never met him you should because he is as fine a man as you will ever meet. He likes to rope and he was a student at the school that year but because of his business commitments he couldn’t attend all 3 days.
He was leaving and he wanted to tell me thank you and to complement me on the job I had done. At that time I’m not sure how good my clinics were and I’m still not sure how I’m doing but I had given it my all and tried to do the best job I could and it was very kind of him to take time to say some nice things. I can’t remember who I was with but it was a fellow roper and during breakfast Mr. Rice ask me why I wanted to put on roping schools? I said that when I was growing up I wanted to rope better. Every time I missed a steer 15 different reasons why I missed and before and before long I didn’t know up from down and I had become very discouraged. As I improved my roping I came to realize that there are some fundamentals that have to be learned that aren’t that complicated that would help people enjoy this sport and I felt I could explain to them and it would prevent people from having to go through the things that I went through. Mr. Rice then looked at the guy that I was with and ask him the same question and this other guy answered very quickly, He simply said for the money. Gene paused for a few seconds and said you didn’t ask for my advice but I’m older than both of you combined so I’m going to give you both some free advice. He said that if money is your motivational factor you will not be successful. He said don’t’ get me wrong money is important, but money is simply a by product of doing the best job you can do because you love doing what your doing and if you don’t love it, find something you do. if you do any job because of the money you’ll not me successful. Take pride in what you do and do more than your paid to do and you’ll be rewarded beyond your own expectations.
I never forgot that advice and I think one of the reasons it stuck in my mind is because when I was growing up I told everyone that I wanted to rope for a living and everyone said I was crazy. You can’t make a living roping and if you do it won’t be a very good one. So after a year that I lead the nation in earnings in professional Rodeo going into the National finals I kept track of expenses verses income.
Entry Fees $42,542.00
Fuel 25,863.00
Tires 2,526.00
Auto repair 3,645.00
Truck repair 7,540.00
Feed 3,375.00
Practice steers 13,922.00
Trailer repair 2,861.00
Vet 2,424.00
Air Fare 4,460.00
Prize Money won $130,378.00
I put 60,000 miles on my truck not counting the miles on my partners truck, My elbows and right shoulder throb at night and I welcome the end of the year because my horses and me are worn out. The only regret I have is that I’m not 20 years old again and I could do it all one more time. What a price can you put on the trill of winning the Championship at the San Antonio Rodeo? Or being in the lead at the Bob Fiest Invitational roping that pays $100,000 dollars and falling short because of a devastating 5th steer. What about being in a private plane and our pilot put the landing gear down along with the flaps and he flew at the slowest speed we could around the Teton Mountains at sundown during the late summer. You talk about beautiful and I get to do that for free. Being able to travel with my family and roping against my son and trying to help each other win all year. What about those big brown trout I caught in Casper WY. Or the Elk herd I seen outside of Bishop, CA. or that Thunder storm we seen on the Eastern slop of the Rocky Mountains. That Moose that was eating in the stream in British Colombia that we seen driving from Strathmore Alberta Rodeo. or what about when our friend Ron Bergon took us on 2 air boats out in the middle of the Ever Glades and shut the engines down and we just floated in silence just at Sun down and those alligators started popping up all around the boat and there eyes shined like red rubes, What about that! The friends we have roped with across this beautiful country all year. What price do you put on all that!
I would play this game if they gave ribbons away because of team roping and I wouldn’t trade any of my experiences for all the money in the world. Leo Camarillo told me one time that if he couldn’t heel he would head, if he couldn’t head he would work the chutes because he just wanted to be around it because in the final analysis is it’s really about the love of the game. Amen Brother!
Until next month
