A shot of Pedernales Falls on July 4, 2004.
April 17, 2004
“I have grown up riding horses and playing basketball. My first year of college, while playing basketball for Saint Mary's College, the all women's part to Notre Dame, the Notre Dame Rodeo Club was started by two brothers from Montana who both roped, and I decided that I was going to ride bucking horses, because I figured that it would be most like breaking young horses. I went to the nearest practice pen, paid my entry fee, then just kind of stood around…I didn't know what to do next. These four big goobery, chaw-spattin' guys (the kind that like to watch train wrecks) came up, laughed and said that all this practice pen did was bulls, no horses, then they just snickered. This is where my stubborn, Yankee, thick-skulled, I-am-always-right, girlness surfaced and I said “I know that” without even flinching. So basically without ever having any plan to ride a bull in my life, I was getting on my first bull about five minutes later because I was stubborn and they were ugly.
The ride was not one of those cases where, as a first-timer, you think “Wow, she's a natural.” Nope. I got thwapped. I WAS a natural at taking a beating. Between trying to figure out which was up and deciding that it was daylight and not the lights of heaven I was seeing, I remember thinking to myself, “This is the coolest thing I have ever done.” Right now you should be thinking “She's a math major, her list of cool things probably isn't very long” and that is true.
I went to two college rodeos my first year, the second of which was at UT-Martin, and after learning about Coach Luthi, I decided that I needed to transfer to Marin. UTM has one of the top rodeo programs in the country and has won the Collegiate Rodeo Associations RAWHIDE award several times since Coach Luthi has been 
here. We have an amazing practice facility at the Wooten equine center. But most importantly, Coach Luthi's program is not just about going, riding for three hours and leaving. The UTM program is based around goal setting and developing plans of action to achieve your goals in order to push everyone up to that next level in rodeo and in their lives.
I was at a point where I had to make a difficult decision. Rodeo is not like high school football. Where as you get older you can still go play pick up games with your buddies. There is too much at stake to not be in the best shape you can be in, getting the best information you can get. I either had to stop attempting rodeo half-heartedly, or else I needed to get some professional help for my bull-riding addiction.
I was initially supported by everyone in my decision to transfer fro Notre Dame to UTM. As many of you I am sure are parents, you can imagine how excited my parents were when I told them that I wanted leave my full-ride academic scholarship at a private Catholic college, to move to a state they have never visited, to attend a school they have never heard of, to pursue something that I was no good at. They told me that it was the best decision I had ever made. Additionally, during my second phone conversation with Coach Luthi, he did say that he heard I had played basketball and had talked to the coach here at UTM and that the basketball coach was really excited to meet me. Without much support coming or going, deciding to transfer to Martin was a very difficult decision.
· I have run a half-marathon and a full marathon.
· At barely 5'9” I played center for a division II college basketball team. (While I know that you all are looking at me thinking “well, she's a big stout girl,” but let me tell you, they grow girls BIG up north.)
· I studied for a semester in rural India.
· I am currently in a brutal PhD program in mathematics at Rice University.
So while the list of coolest things I have ever done may be relatively short, the list of difficult things I have done is not. And bull riding is still the most difficult thing I have ever done. I mean to enter the arena and know that it is you against some of the meanest, ugliest, rankest, smelliest beasts that have been trained for this since they were little is enough to give you that empty feeling in your stomach. But I think my success in several areas has largely been due to my ability to focus. So I just would walk right past those cowboys and try not to even look at them. I had bulls to focus on.
Why was bull riding the most difficult thing I had ever done? In basketball, from my sophomore year of high school on, I would shoot one-hundred free throws after practice. My mind and my muscles knew exactly what it felt like for that ball to leave my hands; I could see it float through the air and every time in my mind I would hear the tick of the net. With math, I would make flash cards. In one class I was having a particularly hard time with, I worked through every problem in the book and then got another book and started working those problems. I like knowing that I am as prepared as I can be.
But rodeo has a component of it that is not practicing, or being in top shape, or knowing what your bull has done the last 57 times someone rode him. There is a part where it all comes down to heart. Where the gap between knowing what you have to do and then being in that situation and making yourself do it is huge. I know that I am a good student. I had down pat the part where I knew what I was supposed to do.
But this is why, out of all of my accomplishments, my minimal success in rodeo has been the most rewarding out of anything I have ever done. Because every so often I was able to silence the doubts and bridge that gap between knowledge and execution. But it still may not have been as rewarding without Coach Luthi. There are some very talented, disciplined people on this rodeo team who consistently make great rides…and I would fall off on the third buck. Then I would beat myself up over this: why wasn't I getting it? Learning is a long process, and when I would forget to celebrate small victories, the bulls seemed unbeatable.
I think Coach Luthi watched every ride I ever made in that practice pen, and he'd catch me afterwards or when we were watching films. I was so preoccupied with me coming off on the third buck, that I forgot two weeks ago I was coming off on the first buck. Coach would point out where I had finally been able to make some little move to stay in the game that much longer, and then we would also review where things started going wrong. Now here is why John Luthi is the best instructor I have ever had (and not just in sports): when he was done going over a ride with me, the only thing I really ever thought was “Let me try it again, Coach. I can do better next time because next time I will remember to put my feet in the correct place … pick my chest up … breathe.” (That was an important one. I think my riding really improved after that.)”