"Look at your Barrel Racing Event Calendar ! There’s a huge race coming up in Tulare. Can you get a kitchen pass from your husband?" This is how it always starts. My best friend calls me with the latest major money show and tempts me into deserting my husband and child for four days of riding and female bonding. Somehow, my buddies and I end up at all the big events together like one big happy family.

I used to have what I referred to as my "rodeo dream," well, to be honest, I still have it from time to time. You know the one I’m talking about. This is the dream where you’re with your best buddy and you’re all alone on the road together. Just the two of you and your living quarters horse trailer, hauling down a remote two lane highway singing along with the Gretchen Wilson. Life is simple and you’re hauling from rodeo to rodeo having the time of your life enjoying the freedom the road has to offer. And of course, you’re at the top of the barrel racing standings of the Wrangler pro rodeo tour and your horse just won the title of AQHA Horse of the Year in barrel racing.

Somewhere in the middle of this dream, my daughter wakes up with a nightmare. She yells down the hall, "Mommy! Mommy! I had a dream that you took your horse and left Daddy and me alone!" That sort of puts things in perspective in a real hurry and that rodeo dream just gets stuffed in a corner of my mind somewhere dark and remote. Once in awhile it rears its ugly head again and fortunately for me, I live in an area where there are enough big money shows so that I can live out my dreams, if only for a few weekends out of the year.

Hauling to a big show always creates it’s own set of challenges. In my circle of barrel racing buddies, the week before a big race is always very hectic. I go through more checklists and last minute errands than I did the week before my own wedding.

Most of my buddies that I haul with have full time jobs. I’m a stay at home Mom, so that leaves me with the lion’s share of the schlepping. Somehow, I don’t remember all this driving and schlepping in that rodeo dream. I think the Rodeo Fairy must have taken care of everything.

I come home from the feed store with my shavings and hay and hear the phone ring inside the house. The answering machine picks up before I can get the receiver off the hook. It’s my best friend Dee, and you can hear the desperation in her voice as the message plays "Suzie, do me a favor will you hun? If you get a chance, can you pick up six bales of hay and eight bags of shavings at the feed store?" This is my best friend in the whole world and she’s stuck at work. She works in the movies and is always on some god awful location. I call her right back to get more information. "Dee, it’s Suzie. How much hay and shavings do you need?" I ask.

"Four bales of hay and eight bags of shavings." She says firmly.

"For one horse?" I exclaim.

I can hear the anxiety in her voice as she says "We’re going to be gone for four days! I don’t want to run out! What if I get stuck on the road somewhere and he (the horse) gets hungry?"

I take a deep breath "I see. Okay, then. But what about the shavings? Eight bags seems like a lot! I don’t mind getting them, but how are you going to fit this stuff in your rig?"

"Well, how many are you bringing?" she asks.

"Two bags for two horses and I’ll buy more when I get there if I need them." I reply.

"I don’t think that’s enough. You should reconsider. Remember that story we heard about the horse that didn’t have enough shavings and it cast itself in its stall the night before a race and was permanently crippled?" She asked.

"Well, no, actually. But if you…." That’s all I could get in edgewise.

"Suzie, just get me the stuff. Okay? I gotta go. Thanks and love you, bye!" She hung up.

Next, my good friend Liz calls with a trailer problem. Her daughter can’t find a ride to the show and needs my help. Do I know of anyone with an extra spot in their trailer? I suppose I better change that last headcount I just gave to Dee to three head. Good thing she’s bringing extra hay!

And this is how it goes until the big day when we leave for the race.

By the time our departure date arrives, I’m exhausted and looking forward to resting at the barrel race. It’s 5:00am and Dee and I have our rigs parked out in front of my house in the yard. We look like we’re going on a cross country trip with bales of hay and shavings piled around the goosenecks and the cabs of our trucks piled high with clothes and hat boxes. We’re prepared for just about any major disaster that can happen along the way.

For example, I can’t think of what would happen if we passed a huge tack & feed with a sign out front that said "CLEARANCE SALE" and we weren’t prepared to stop with our horses for a few minutes to go check it out. This would put a big damper on the trip and there would be some fur flying over the whole ordeal if someone didn’t have enough provisions to make the stop. I say this all tongue in cheek as if being prepared were some kind of joke. Actually, the trip does go a lot more smoothly when we’re all packed, prepared, and equipped properly. I think most of you know what I’m angling at, anyway.

As soon as we roll in to the fairgrounds, all you see are Wrangler tags and elbows as we bed the stalls and get our ponies settled in for the night. Then it’s off to the hotel to check in and find a place to eat. We’re basically set up for the weekend and now all we have to do is relax and enjoy the barrel race. Right?

Well, maybe it’s not all that simple.

Friday morning rolls around and we’re up at 6:30am to feed, clean, and walk our horses out. Then we ride and spend the rest of the day analyzing our run. We watch a few runs from the grandstands and wonder where we are in the standings. Then we feed, clean, and walk the horses again. By 6:00pm, we’re beat. Then we’re off to dinner and the big decision has to be made on where we’re all going to eat. I think that I’ll just leave that one alone.

By Sunday night, we’re all ready to come home and go back to our regular lives. The barrel racing rodeo dream sure is fun to slip into from time to time, but when it all comes down to it, I’m very happy being a home body and having my daughter snap be back into reality when insanity strikes.

Our weekend trips help me to admire my rodeo heroes all the more. In my wildest of dreams, the rodeo life is simple, easy, and always fun. You’re always with your buddies singing your favorite songs while traveling down the road and never quite envisioning the parts where the hard work and dedication come into play. Living the rodeo life is a hard road to take, and our rodeo heroes deserve our respect and admiration for the commitment they make to keep all our dreams alive.