It’s not lost on me that a breakaway roper won $600k yesterday. Six Hundred Thousand Dollars!
I, now pleassssseeeee don’t hate me, would have loved to have seen it go to a ‘unknown’ and watched as it skyrocketed the career of yet another cowgirl. Remember how we all met Hailey Kinsel 10 years ago? But, it’s absolutely fitting that Jackie Crawford is the one banking the cheque this morning. She’s arguably one of the greatest to have ever picked up a breakaway rope. And then on top of that she’s made it her personal mission to take breakaway from the shadows and the back blocks to downtown Arlington, Vegas and the likes. We as breakaway ropers owe her every bit of that $600k.
But more importantly, it’s doesn’t matter who it was that won it. It’s the fact that it was on the table to win! The fact that breakaway roping already has big names like Jackie is proof that we belong on the big stages. Under the bright lights. With HUGE life changing money waiting at the catch pen.
As I watched yesterday, I remembered the little girl in me who wanted to rope but clearly understood that it was a dead end road. Something they put on for the juniors so the boys could learn to rope. I remember vividly being told that breakaway roping isn’t at the big rodeos, or the nfr, you need to be a barrel racer or quit dreaming of being a big time cowgirl.
Quit dreaming?
The dream is over girls. Little girls, teenagers, mums like me and those that have been chipping away at this for a lifetime waiting, hoping, dreaming that one day there would be a future in breakaway roping, I believe it’s here.
I know none of us truly rope for money. But money, prize money won, is a measure of many things and opens doors like nothing else will. It garners attention, proves sponsorship value both individually and as an event, provides a living and allows cowgirls to invest back into themselves and their roping. Money talks. It’s just the way of the world.
If you’re a mum of little girls (or big girls) and they want to rope, buy them a rope. Get them lessons and the best help you can find. Buy them the best horse you can afford. Let them watch rodeo and roping on tv and social media and let them dream of one day backing in to rope for a million dollars. Because that's an actual possibility.
And above all else, make sure they truly understand that the sky is the limit. Because it truly is!