Along For the Ride
You learn a lot of life lessons in rodeo; lessons that apply to everyday life. Five weeks into the quit and watching the quitters come after me and listening to and watching the vets that have gone before me, I have to say that once again my three days at Sankey Rodeo School in New Caney, TX was worth it.
A lot of people that aren't extremely familiar with rodeo think that the goal is to stay on the horse for 8 seconds-to just hang on and make it through. That's how it appears when you just watch it. It's not the case. A bronc rider doesn't just hang on and try to make the 8 seconds. You'll get really hurt and won't win a thing doing that.
In order to have a winning ride, a rider has to be active and aggressive. You don't just hang on. You move your legs up and down aggressively and by doing that it keeps your momentum centered on the horse in time with the bronc's buck. Be aggressive and take the fight to it.
The second part is the free hand. The free hand is really important. You keep it up and away from the bronc because it gives you balance. You drop that arm and try and grab the riggin with both hands and you are going to fall off the bronc because it's going to shift your momentum in the wrong way. And in that particular case - you fall off the bronc on the wrong side which means you're going to get hung up (hand still stuck in the riggin while your body is off the bronc.) This represents about the worst possible scenario. So the thing that seems like the safest thing to do when you are in trouble, to grab with both hands, is actually the worst possible thing you can do.
These two bronc riding scenarios make me think of my quit in these ways; am I being active and aggressive and asking the question will a chew really help me or get me killed? I think about these things a lot while I'm walking down the path. I don't want to just quit and go along for the ride. I won't make it. For me - I have to take the fight to the nic bitch. I don't cower in fear that I'm going to cave when I wake up - I have a gleam in my eye wondering what the heck this gals got for me today. I'm going to take the fight to her not sit around waiting for shock and awe to happen to me. Fuck that. That will kill me.
What does that look like ? Well - it's really simple. I look at what the vets are doing. I'm sure there are some quitters that have been quit a long time that aren't on here but I don't know what they are doing. I do know that the guys and gals on here that have been long time quitters invest in others. They take the fight to the nic bitch in whole..not just for themselves but for anyone else that wants to get out from under her grasp. They post, they text they meet with each other they are full on ghey; a term I've come to love and embrace.
The other people I learn my lesson from are the cavers. These are the ones that think they are strong enough; that they have enough strength just in their arm to hang on. They may go 8 seconds, but they will never win a buckle. More likely than not, they end up caving and posting a day 1 again. They invest in no one else. They hunker down and just want to get through the day. They quiver at every wind of challenge. Yep -they help my quit because as every coach I ever had told me you can learn as much from a loser as you can from a winner. There's always a
'what to do" and a "what not to do."
So here I am on a Saturday without a dip in my mouth and typing my random thoughts on quitting. I'm reflecting a bit on the last few weeks and thinking about the rest of today. I have already resolved that I love the sound of a cheering crowd for overcoming the bitch rather than somehow embracing sympathy for being a loser. No -I do not want to be a loser today. I'm going to ride hard today. I'm going to reach out to the many people that gave me their numbers to check on them. I'll be on chat. I'll post roll on other pages and let someone know I'm thinking of them. Fuck ya! I'm going to ride like a winner today and I can hardly wait to post day 37 tomorrow morning. It's the equivalent to me of standing on the podium while the American flag is being raised and some smoking hot chick with huge hoo hoos is singing the star spangled banner. Yep...I'll take that please.
