Thankful, Grateful and Blessed....

Oh Lord, it's so hard to be Humble...

OK, you have to be old to finish that song! But honestly, I see a lack of humility and an inflation of pride among barrel racers as a whole. I get it. I do! I am super proud of my ponies from this weekend! But.... ya'll... you have to stop and thank God for your BLESSINGS!!! I see so many that fall and blame God. I see so many that want to walk away and throw down that sucker into the dirt. Did you stop and ask God what is going on? Or did you blame Him for what ever it is that is going wrong? Do you realize that for everything that has ever gone wrong in my life (and oh Lord, it's a LONG LIST!) I have just as many BLESSINGS! We all fall into the well of self doubt, self pity, self loathing. Guys, we have got to STOP. We have got to look UP and pray! We need to thank God that our horses didn't try to kill us while we were in that arena!!!!!! So we didn't win. But Holy Cow! Did you see that run? Did you stay on your horse? Did you HAVE FUN??? Did you die? If you look at it as fun vs winning/loosing, I think you will be blown away at how your outlook is before and after a race! Also, if you look at race results..out of 200 runners, only like 25 get a check. So are we doing this to win??? Or are we doing this to have fun? If I was barrel racing to provide food for my family, I'd be living under a bridge with my horse and my dog. Seriously!! I am so blessed to have a husband whom supports my barrel racing habit!

Now some of you might say "yeah but you have a nice horse and you do win a lot". Guys, I have had everything from a 10D horse to a 1D horse. It doesn't make hills beans what I am running. I am Grateful, Thankful and Blessed. I had the $500 with saddle appaloosa that was green broke. We hauled with a beat up 70's model stock (in the 90's) and a chevy van! That horse was so cool! We had our ups and downs, but we had FUN. To this day, the only time that I didn't have fun running barrels was when I let it get in my head that I had to win money. Or when I surrounded myself with negative Nancy's!! That is the other issue. Your circle should be supportive and encouraging. If they are not....Maybe you need to either try to build them up or walk away. I have had a lot of "friends" that really just needed me to share with them about how to turn their thinking around and bam....they figured out how to be positive! I have had way too many that, no matter what, they were going to be negative, verbally bash others, and pass judgement on every single detail of everything. I have learned that I have to pray for these folks and just walk away.

Back to the main point of this post. Our God is a Loving God. When you are struggling...perhaps you are looking down and not up? I know that things can go south fast. Like seriously bad. I have dealt with so much bad stuff from the death of friends/family and my beloved animals. I have survived a lot too. I don't want to air my laundry but, I have been to the bottom. That is when we need to look up. We need to stop and ask God to help. Sometimes we want to blame Him for our troubles. But I can say that for every bad thing that has happened, I have been doubly blessed! My good out weighs the bad! ALWAYS! Just the fact that I wake up every morning is a true blessing! Stop counting all the negatives and start counting the blessings. I promise that you will start to see the light at the end of the tunnel! God has a plan and a purpose for each of us. Perhaps he is diverting you to the path you are meant to follow? I know that I have swirled around in the woods wondering what in the world is going on then, all of the sudden, there is this huge path smack in front of me! Its AMAZING! I literally lost my only competition horse due to a freak accident. He is still alive but he cant run for me anymore. I didn't think I had anything to compete on. I mean....I had the 4 year old (Lynx) and the 5 year old who liked to buck....what was I going to do??? Guess what? I loaded up Lynx and he began his career!!! God closed one door and literally opened another that has been such an awesome path!!!



1. Count your Blessings not your Faults

2. Be thankful, grateful and blessed

3. God is ALWAYS there FOR you not AGAINST YOU but sometimes you need to look UP to see this.

4. Always be thankful for your ability to go make a run, ride your horse, have a horse........

5. Don't let others get in your head and take away your JOY.