Something you should know about cowboying:  A horse will throw you off, but a bull will get in your shorts.
 
Freight Train, an 1800-pound Brahma, got into mine one afternoon at a rodeo near home, turned me every way but loose, then jumped a fence and attacked three spectators.
 
"Well, there's always next time," a buddy of mine said, but the courage I needed came a lot easier from a safer distance.
 
 The guy with courage was rodeo star turned actor, Hoot Gibson.  When a director asked him to take a fall off a horse for an extra five dollars, Hoot replied, "Make it ten and I'll let him kick me."

A cowboy right off the range, Hoot made 217 westerns and won both the All-Around Champion title and the Steer Roping Champion title.  In 1979, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum.

 

"Don't be afraid to go after what you want to be.  But don't be afraid to be willing to pay the price."

 
                    ---  Lane Frost, World Champion Bull Rider
 
 
 
"I do the best I can to win what I can, and if I do that, then win, lose, or draw, I can live with myself."
 
                    ---  Tuff Hedeman, Four-time World Champion Bull Rider
 
 
 
"Anytime you face that fear inside, that is something to be proud of."
 
                                                                 ---  Larry Mahan, Six-time All Around Cowboy
 
 
 
"Courage is the thing.  All goes if courage goes."
 
                                                                  ---  J.M. Barrie
 

 

Half the battle is
being true to your style
in trouble to jest
to toughen your skin.
Half the battle
is rising in defiance
with a cry, "I never give in!"

Half the battle is
that one extra mile.
Can you meet the test?
Then where is that grin?
With half the battle
you'll tuck it in your pocket
 and know then somehow you'll win.

                 ---Jerry Herman

 

 

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