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Walt, I wanted to take the time and drop you this email , and to thank you for teaching me to rope. No we have never met, but I have been trying to learn for a while now. I have been to a clinic and have watched many video instructional tapes. I was so discouraged, but wanted to keep trying to rope. I was waiting for my wife while she shopped in this particular store that had different DVD’s on team roping. Now understand I have bought them all  Speed ,Ricky’s, Jake’s, and they are all good, but there was something missing. So my wife ask if I was going to buy another DVD . I laughed and said I guess, and took your video on “heading” home. Well to save this from being a long email , that was in October 09. I made 18 in the call back out of 300 teams in the Circle T Arena team roping November 22  and qualified for the finals in May. Went to my good friends , Don and Jenifer Barnes arena in Mineral Wells and won the buckle for that Sunday January 10 th .You just made it easier for me to understand what I was doing wrong. I started late in life on this roping trail for I am 53 now and have been at this for about a year and a half, but I so enjoy it. I hope to meet you some day, and to thank you in person…..I just wanted to say good job Walt…and Thanks Eric.

DEAR  WALT, TRAVIS AND DARLENE,

MY NAME IS CURTIS HAWORTH  I’M IN NORTHERN ALBERTA RUNNING A DRILLING RIG IN THE FROZEN TUNDRA.MY WIFE JUST SENT ME MY COPY OF YOURE NEW DVDS UP WITH MY ROPING PARTNER.WE WATCH THEM DAILY AS WELL AS ROPE THE SAW HORSE EVERY DAY FOR A FEW HOURS .I WOULD LIKE TO THANK YOURE FAMILY  FOR ALL THE TIME AND EFFORT  PUT INTO MAKING THEM AND HELPING PEOPLE. THEY ARE AN INVALUABLE TOOL TO US .THEY HELPS US MORE THAN I CAN SAY.THE TIME AND ENERGY THAT YOURE FAMILY GIVES TO MAKING PEOPLE BETTER ROPERS AND IN MY VIEW BETTER PEOPLE IS SECOUND TO NONE.I WENT TO  A CLINC FROM WALT LAST YEAR AND COULDN’T BELIEVE THAT SOMEONE WOULD GO TO THE LENGTHS THAT HE DOES TO HELP EVERY SINGLE PERSON.HE CHANGED MY ROPING AND HOW I APROACH AND LOOK AT THINGS NOT JUST IN THE ROPEN PEN EITHER .HE TOLD US MONDAY IS HATE MAIL DAY THOSE PEOPLE OUT TO LUNCH. THE WAY HE EXPLANES AND SHOWS YOU IN PERSON AS WELL AS IN YOURE DVDS IS INCREADABLY EASY TO UNDERSTAND.ON BEHALF OF ALL OF US THAT YOU HAVE HELPED UP HEAR THANK YOU FOR YOURE DEDICATION AND THE  SACRIFICES YOURE FAMILY MAKES TO IMPROVE AND MAKE BETTER ROPERS AND PEOPLE.                  THANK YOU CURTIS

Walt, just wanted to drop you a line telling you how much I enjoyed and learned @ your school 2-15.  Really liked the way you and Travis were informal but really professional, makes it alot easier when you are not intimidated by your professor.  Thanks to your wife and mother, the whole school was just great.  Thanks again and best of luck!  Jim Davenport

-TW

There was a beautiful little girl in our area of California her name was Britney Gellerman. She was full of life. She was a star in youth rodeo with a full life ahead of her. I was away from home and my wife called me and said that Britney was sick. I said that kids get sick to which she informed me that no, this was a serious illness. She had been feeling sluggish and her energy level was down and that wasn’t like her at all. They took her to the doctor and after several tests they found out she had leukemia, not that, that wasn’t bad enough, she had the worst kind. She was a slight built girl to begin with and didn’t need to lose a pound and after a courageous fight; she lost the battle to that awful disease. All of the bad things that happen to people during chemo and radiation happened to her and through it all she never weakened she never complained and did all that was ask of her but it finally took her life. She lived in a town called Oakdale, California and its billed as the cowboy capital of the world and at one time it was. It’s at the base of the foothills in northern California and surrounded by cattle ranches and there are still a lot of real working cowboys along with some rodeo cowboys that live in the area. One of those cowboys is a guy by the name of Ace Berry. He is a working cowboy that has his won ranch but he also is one of only 2 rodeo cowboys that has ever won the NFR average at opposite end of the arena in the same year. Ace won the bareback riding and the team roping average . The only other man to ever accomplish that was Phil Lyon and he did it in the Calf roping and the bull riding. That’s legendary stuff.
Now keep Ace Berry in mind and let me tell you about the town of Oakdale. When I was young it was a real cowboy town. Feed stores, the rodeo grounds and the famous H bar B saloon, Because Oakdale is between San Francisco and the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It has become very modernized, snow skiers crowd the town in the winter and nature lovers in the summer, all on there way to the mountains. The road that runs through town is called Hwy 120 and it has become very crowded. Up on the hill as you enter the town is where Britney’s funeral was to be held. The entire town had tried to help with fund raisers so when she died the entire town was there. Grown men that were tuff as nails wept before the service ever started. There were people everywhere, they stood outside and had filled the huge church when we arrived. There was a horse drawn Hearst outside the church with a driver dressed in black with a team of horses standing quietly. Ace Berry was there dressed in his everyday clothes that he wares on the ranch and he sit on his horse. He had his chinks on and he sat and stared straight ahead. On one side he held one of Britney’s horses and on the other side he held her palomino. Her Saddles were around her casket and they put her in the horse drawn Hurst and they stopped the traffic on hwy 120 and the team of horses carrying Britney trotted out of the church yard and headed for the cemetery which is about a mile away. Trotting right behind the Hearst was Ace Berry riding his horse and leading both of her horses. He looked straight ahead and everyone followed in there cars. My son told me that if anything happens to me please ask Ace if he’ll lead my horses as well because I know they won’t get away from him. I ask him to do the same the same for me and my entire family cried along with the entire town of Oakdale. It was with out a doubt the saddest day of my life. I have never doubted Gods plan but that day I did. Why do children die? Why would a child that hasn’t had a chance at life that has never committed any wrong get cancer? Give it to me, not her. I’ve had a chance at life and she hasn’t. When Children die I think those questions come to most people minds but there must be a master plan and we must carry on. Every time I go by that church I think of her as I do every month when I send my contribution in to ST. Jude’s Children’s hospital. I have contributed to St. Jude’s before Brittney was born and what better cause is there than a hospital that is committed to end Cancer in Children. Also if you can’t afford treatment St Jude’s will treat your child. There policy is that they will never deny a child treatment because of race, religion or an inability to pay. There are all kinds of causes that are worthy but that one touches my heart, I want to give more. Maybe with more money to help the scientist and doctors find a cure, like the shot that cured polio there can be one in my lifetime to stop cancer in children. One of my Goals for next year is to put on roping school where all proceeds goes to St Jude’s.
Until next month
Walt Woodard

A friend of mine stopped by one day, that is in the cattle business and he has been very successful. Not only that, but he is a positive guy. When he drove in I thought to myself, this guy has got to be miserable in this weather. He’s got all those cows and trying to feed in the rain everyday has got to be wearing him down. He walked in and I never seen him so happy. He said this is one of the greatest opportunities in my life. Do you have any Idea come spring how much feed there will be all over this state? There will be lots of grass and hay will be at an all time low. Every piece of ground will be covered with volunteer hay. I bet you a man can almost name the price he wanst to pay because there will be so much of it. He said the sale barns were full of people selling there cattle and he was buying as many as he could afford and scattering them around the country waiting for spring. He said I would love to stay longer but I’ve got to go, there is so much opportunity out there right now. I can’t stay here any longer, I don’t want to miss any of it. There I was listening to everyone on the news telling me how bad things were and I started to believe them. I had forgotten the old saying that when one door closes another one opens. I was setting there in the rain with my rubber boots on trying to stay dry and this guy is running through open doors. I took his advice. I scouted around and found and old barn that would hold about 70 ton of hay and come spring we bought cheep hay and filled that barn up. I bought as many cattle as my little place could hold and started my plan. I think I had about 100 head and I feed them that hay all the next winter and sold them in the spring. I don’t remember the exact number but I think I made almost $250 profit on each animal and there’s no telling how much my friend made.
This economy reminds me of that time in California. Everyone in the media tells us everyday how bad things are and I promise you there is so much opportunity out there if we could just figure out where it is. I don’t remember the general that said this during World War II but this guy was surrounded and people were panicking and they came to him and said what will we do? He smiled and said,” They won’t get away this time“. Because we know exactly where there at, now stop running for cover and let’s attack.
It always comes back to attitude and actions, doesn’t it? The results we get will always depend on how we decide to react to any situation; it’s up to us as individuals. Followers listen to he hipe and are convinced there’s no way out and winners attack. What group do you want to be in, I think I know which one I’m choosing.
Until next month
Thanks for your time
Walt Woodard

I don’t like excuses. I met an old guy one time and we got to visiting and he told me that he was a retired marine. I don’t remember his rank but he had spent 30 years in the core and he said he loved it. I ask him what the biggest adjustment he had to make when he got out and he answered immediately. He said excuses; I’m not use to people telling me why they can’t do something. He told me that in his world if he told one of his men to jump a horse over a 6 foot brick wall and he come back on hour later, there would be several things that might have happened upon his return The marine might be dead, the horse might be dead or they both might be dead. The brick wall may be torn down or the marine and his mount have accomplished there mission and they have moved on. He said the one thing that you could count on is when you got back to the wall his man wouldn’t be still standing there with his hands on his hips saying, it’s too tall. It’s two windy and I don’t think my horse can make a jump of this height. He said we go over it, through it or tear it down, but we don’t make excuses. I liked what he said so I have tried not to be an excuse maker. I think there a big difference between excuses and reasons because things happen for a reason.
So during this downward spiral I’ve been on, I’ve tried to figure out the reason I wasn’t getting the results I desire and I’ve come up with several during the year. The first was the way I was drawing. I wasn’t drawing as good a steers as everyone else and that’s crazy. Losers say that. One guy doesn’t draw any better than the next guy, 50 percent good ones and 50 percent bad ones, so we can eliminate that. Bad breaks, I worked my way into the semi finals at the Houston Rodeo which is the biggest regular season rodeo of the year and a win there and you virtually guaranteed a spot at the NFR. All I had to do is be under 7 seconds to make the final 4 and rope for $35,000 a man and I hooked my rope on the calf roping pulley in the heeling box, when I left the chute and it jerked my rope out of my hands. That was a bad break but one incident doesn’t make or break you and that was unfortunate but everyone has bad breaks. My horse was going forward when I threw my rope, so I took him to the vet and had his hocks worked on and that fixed that problem. Things got a little better, but not great. The last thing I came up with was I went to have my eyes checked. I couldn’t possibly see and rope this bad, so to the eye doctor I went and I did in deed need glasses but that hasn’t been the fix all either. In the final analyzes it’s come down to one thing, Desire, that burning desire that you have to have to achieve something great.
I read one time that the two worst things that can happen to a person is one, never reaching your goal and the other is reaching it. When I came back and decided to put my schools on hold and start competing full time again I set some goals for myself. 1. I wanted to see if a man 50 years old could qualify for the NFR. 2. I wanted to reach the $1,000,000 dollar mark in prorodeo earnings. I was at $670.000 when I started 31/2 years ago and I felt that with the prize money the way it is at the NFR now days, that was an attainable goal as well. Last, I wanted to have the credentials to be considered for induction into the Prorodeo Hall of Fame. The last one is political and I’m not a very political guy but if I did all I could do in the arena maybe I would reach that last goal.
This comeback turned out way better than I planned. If someone came up to you and said that your going to win the US open, $95,000 at the NFR and the World Championship, and Bob Feist Invitational you would say right, in your dreams. Except it wasn’t a dream, It happened, and it happened to me. It has been awesome, but then comes the thought, now what. Right after the NFR last year I should have chosen a new set of goals and went after them. I have 20 other things that I want to achieve away from the rodeo business but I decided to stay one more year and I didn’t have that burning desire it takes to do great things. I have it now but it might be too late. There’s 3 weeks left in the regular season and I’m doing everything humanly possibly to qualify one more time and get back to the NFR to rope for the title and I still have a chance.
The thing I learned this year is if you don’t have an absolute passion for something then don’t do it. If you don’t love what you’re doing and you just can’t wait for the alarm clock to go off in the morning so you can get out there and get after it, you won’t achieve great things. There are so many wonderful goals in life, a person can set your sights on, but it has to be something you want. Something you want more than anything in the world and it doesn’t matter how big or how small. It’s that spark way down in your soul that turns into a fire and then a raging inferno that drives you on past where most people would quite but that isn’t an option for a person that has that desire. We all have to find out what it is that we really want out of life. Life’s to short so don’t wait another day. Find out what it is that you really want out of life and go after it.
Until next month
Thanks for your time
Walt Woodard

Where ever your reading this right now, if it’s the first week of December I’m at the National finals rodeo competing for a World Championship. I’m the oldest guy at the National Finals and it should be a testament to all people that if you have a dream, go after it. All I ever wanted to do in my life was to be a world Champion and now 25 years after I won the Championship I have a chance to win it again. What’s should be so encouraging about that is I’ve told you before that I’m not a very talented guy and the reason I know that is because I’ve tried all kinds of sports and I’m bad at all of them. I played football in school. I was too slow and didn’t like people running over me. I played baseball and had dreams of the ball hitting me in the head. I boxed and didn’t like getting hit in the face at all. I played basketball and the coach never put me in a game except on time it was our home coming game and to this day I still don’t know why he put me in. He looked over at me and said Woodard your in and I said I’m what?

When I realized he was talking abut the game I got so excited I run onto the floor and on the second possession the opposing team had the ball and they took a shot and missed. They got the ball back and shot again and missed. They got the ball back and shot again and missed and the ball came right to me. Guess what I did? I shot and that would have been great but I shot at there basket and Thank God I missed. Shortly after that the coach took me out. So I’m telling you that I’m not very talented, I know what I’m talking about. If I can do what I’ve done this year anyone can reach there dreams as well but you have to begin. You have to start, take that first step and if you fall get up. Just keep getting up, crawl forward if you have to and never give up. Keep running your head into that brick wall a thousand times and when everyone else has given up keep hammering away and just abut the time you think there is no hop you see the slightest of cracks in the wall and just keep going towards the light. I think all of us are capable of great things but were afraid to fail. What if this and what if that. I got one for you. What if you never tried what a shame that would be. Pick out something that you’ve always wanted and go after it and stop worrying about other people might think. That use to hold me back. I grew up a little fat kid and when I first got into the rodeo business I tried to fit in but no matter how hard I tried, my pants were to short and then they were too long. My hat wasn’t shaped right and my shirt didn’t match my boots and then one day I looked in the mirror and said I like my shirt and I like my pants and I think my hat looks just fine and besides this isn’t a fashion show it’s a roping contest and my mother told me when I was a little kid that it doesn’t matter how old your clothes are or what they look like as long as they are clean you don’t have anything to be ashamed of she said that here wasn’t any reason that you clothes should be dirty except being lazy and that was unacceptable, So I quite caring what everybody else thought and started concentrating on what I wanted. Below average people talk about other people, average people talk about material things, Above average people talk about Ideals, goals, and there plans on how there going to achieve those things. I want to be in that third group. You keep track of what everyone is wearing if you want to but I’m not, I don’t have time. I got things to do.
I’m convinced that success is not about talent. It’s more about determination. If y9ur determination to succeed is strong enough you will succeed. It’s just that simple. All of us are born the same way, untalented. Were not born to fly jets, or climb mountains, or rope steers. We have to learn those things and I believe all of us had a dream at one time and its still in all of us so why not go after it. What happened to that dream I believe it’s still in there and it’s time to wake it up. I know I’ve heard it said about you before you’re too old and I’m telling you that your not. I’m not and neither are you. You’re too tall, too short, too young, and too thin, you’re a girl and it’s never been done before. So it sounds like someone needs to be the first and why not me.
I heard a little boy one time tell his mother, Mom I am the little boy that will be king. And the mother looked at her son and said, there aren’t any kings around here. To which the little boy said replied see there we need one. That little boy was me and we never want to forget that spark that all of us still has inside of us just because we have had set backs during our lives and things haven’t turned out like we had planed. Its not to late but you got to get up and begin. Do something everyday that is going to bring you one step closer to that goal that you have always dreamed of.
I have a wonderful fried of mine that is a Doctor and he told me along time ago that this life isn’t a dress rehearsal We will never be back here again This is it, were not getting ready for the next time. Don’t wait any longer; act now because tomorrow may be too late. If I can do it anyone can and as you read this I’m doing it. Let’s go its never to late.
Until next month
Thanks for your time
Walt Woodard

My Dad used to tell me that a sure sign you are getting older is that you’re always trying to remember some guys name. I have arrived at that point in my life. I’ve never been that great at remembering names anyways, but I sear it is getting worse. It is not a matter of disrespect, but when I meet someone I notice how they shake hands and the way they speak. But, I just don’t listen to their name as well as I should and there lies the problem. I even got a book one time that was about how to remember people’s names. The author said you are suppose to make up a story about someone when you meet them and that way you’ll always remember be able to call them by name. I can’t remember the author’s name but I tried that and when I would see someone I had met in my life I couldn’t remember their story either. So I would just apologize that I could not remember their name and most people consider the source and move on.

Now with all of that said, I am sure you have been in that same situation before where you are telling someone a story and you are trying to remember someone’s name and for the life of you, you just can’t say the name. The name is right on the tip of your tongue and it just will not come to you. You try to tell the person you are talking to you know ‘that guy, you know his name.’ Finally, you just have to go on with your story because you just can’t remember it. That just happened to me two days ago. There was a guy that I watched rope a lot when I was younger. He could really get out of the barrier well, he was really aggressive, and he won a lot. I remember the guy has two first names before his last name, but I couldn’t remember his name. The person I was telling the story to lost interest in my story because I was struggling so with the name thing. This morning I woke up at three AM, set up in bed, and said Gene Ray Ward. My wife woke up and asked me what in the world I was talking about. I said, ‘Gene Ray Ward that is the guy’s name.’ She asked me why I was thinking of Gene Ray Ward in the middle of the night and I said I wasn’t. I was trying to remember his name for two whole days and it came to me just now. All of us have had that happen and when it happens to me, I like it. It is like my brain is working on a problem for me while I sleep and that is a good thing. I imagine it as a guy walking through the hall ways of my mind looking in filing cabinets for the answer to the problem at hand. Thomas Edison has been quoted that when he was faced with a problem he would take a 15 minute nap and many times when he awoke he would have the solution.
I read an article one time and the author talked about a sixth sense that we all have and that is what he was talking about. He said that when we want something in life and we start to think about it our brain starts to work in that direction. That is why it is so important to think positive thoughts and think about our goals and why we can reach them instead of why we can’t. When we have a goal and we think about it first thing in the morning and the last thing at night and as many times as possible during the day, we are starting the machine in motion. Ideas start to come to life out of nowhere that will help us achieve our desired results.
Listen to this. It bothers me to waste anything. Like when you buy food and you don’t eat it in time and it spoils and goes bad, that bothers me. I think I shouldn’t have bought it or I should have given it to someone that could have used it and that way it wouldn’t have wasted. So the other day I go to get a banana at my house and your guessed it they are almost black. I like bananas, I like ripe bananas but I don’t like black ones. During my life I have thrown away a lot of bananas and the other day when I am sitting in my kitchen looking at black bananas it dawns on me. Instead of buying six or eight bananas in one bunch I will buy two perfect bananas, two slightly green bananas, and two completely green bananas and that is my new plan. I am not enjoying perfect bananas all the time and happy to say no more waste. A great idea like that came to me while I was looking at black bananas. I should have been doing that my whole life, but I never ask my brain for help until the other day. We can look at something that bad and tell ‘I would like to do something about that’ and our brain starts working on the solution. Hopefully it is something greater than black bananas, but I’m still proud of that idea. The next time you go to the super market and you pass the bananas, stop to get two, two and two and think to yourself, that Walt Woodard is a smart guy.

Until next month,
Thank you for your time.

Walt Woodard