Focusing on Personal Best

by Lori Pierce

I have been struggling with my kids always worrying about winning and being the best. Also them having all the best horses and equipment that goes along with rodeos. It is no different than when a kid comes home and wants a certain pair of designer pants because every popular child has them or when your child comes home and wants to cut their hair like their friends hair.

In rodeo, it can be a lot the same. The kids want the best barrel horse because one of their friends/competitors just got a new horse. Or they want a living quarters trailer because everyone else has one. Well we can not afford all of the latest trends. But as a mom I want my kids to have the best and feel that they fit in and are a part of the in crowd. However, that does not have to be the case in rodeo.

In our family, we focus on the best that we are as individuals and the best that we have as a family. As well as focusing on doing better each time we compete. My rewards system is not focused around if they win or not but if they try hard and did better than they did the time before. I have found that in doing this my kids have actually started to win even though they do not have the most expensive horses or the most expensive equipment. They are learning to be proud of themselves because they are doing better each time than the time before. They are becoming much better cowgirls and they actually are doing their share of placing in the top.

I also have found that by slowly improving with what they have to work with they have learned that their own level of improvement has grown. They slowly have become better and better and it has made them much more confident in their abilities and the abilities of their horses to actually compete against the kids they thought they would never be able to compete against. This is something that has really worked with my oldest daughter and I can see it working slowly with my youngest as well. I know that if I had the money I probably would have went out and purchased a better horse and a better trailer and all of that stuff. However, I am glad in some ways that we were not able to do that because I really feel it has made my girls a lot better cowgirls.