I grew up in the City. I married a man who is a second generation Professional Saddle Bronco Rider. I am now raising 3 children who are third generation rodeo kids. I am finding that rodeo families are much different than normal families. These kids work hard. Our family voted to high school rodeo. This starts in Grade 6. I have 2 girls and 1 boy. The girls each have 1 horse they are responsible for. This includes feeding, watering, exercising and of course loving. Our son rides a rough stock event so he is responsible for helping getting the vehicle ready before rodeo weekend. The children have to keep their marks above 80% to be able to rodeo. Most weeks they are absent from school 1 or 2 days for traveling time to attend the rodeos. Each week they have to get their principal to sign a consent form saying they are keeping their marks above 80% so they can attend the rodeo. My kids all hang around together with the same friends and families. I think the thing that surprises me the most is the way all the adults look out for everybody else’s kids. They will help the kids if they are having problems in their events and then won’t hesitate to give them heck when they are misbehaving. Not that my children ever misbehave. (We won’t even start) When one of my children starts whining about how tough life is for them all I have to do is to start telling them about my life growing up in the city and that usually shuts them up!

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