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During all four years of my high school career, I was heavily involved in the National High School Rodeo Association. Every weekend in both the Fall and Spring, my dad and I would travel from our home in Wells, Nevada, to different locations all over the state.

All the high school rodeos in Nevada are double-headers, held on Saturdays and Sundays. I participated in team roping, breakaway roping, barrel racing, pole bending, and goat tying each day. What that meant was my dad and I spent long hours at the rodeo grounds. Rain, snow, or shine(which was rare in every location but Las Vegas), we were there, waiting for the announcer to call my name for my next event.

During my senior year, I went through a terrible slump in breakaway roping. I would get nervous and make silly mistakes. The more it happened, the more frustrated I became, which caused the problem to worsen...it was just a vicious cycle. Despite my roping slump, it was a wonderful season weather-wise, until...

...The Minden Rodeo. While I do not recall the date, the rodeo in Minden, Nevada, will stick in my mind forever. The entire day was comical, but what happened to me was incredibly funny. Here's how the day unfolded:

We got up early and left the hotel to go to rodeo grounds to feed my horses. It was incredibly cold, and there was a creepy calm in the air...it was going to snow. After the horses had been fed, my dad and I went to a restaurant to have some breakfast. By the time we finished eating, snow was beginning to fall outside. We returned to the rodeo grounds and proceeded to get ready for the day.

As the day wore on, the storm got worse and the snow continued to come down. In the morning hours,I had participated in all my events with the exception of breakaway roping. It was snowing so hard that everyone had their horses saddled and standing in the horse trailer until their name was called to go to the arena.

Dad and I ended up sitting in the truck and leaving my saddled horse in the trailer for several hours waiting for the breakaway competition to begin. When my name was finally called, I ran to the trailer, grabbed my rope, jumped on my horse and hurried to the roping box. I was so cold at that point that I really did not care how I roped; I just wanted to get it over with.

I backed into the roping box and realized I could barely see the calf standing in the chute right next to me. I nodded my head and went. To my great surprise,I caught my calf in a couple of seconds, and was one of the only girls to even catch that day!

Of course, my dad is convinced I roped better in bad weather because that is what I was used to practicing in at home, but I think it was that my anxiety was gone because I did not care about anything but getting in out of the snow. Whatever the reason was, we still laugh about that day. I'd share pictures of the experience, but all you'd be able to see would be little white specks floating through the air.

Learn more about this author, Jessica Carner.
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