By Lyndee Stairs
Special To Ropers Sports News
This month I am writing about Betty Grohl. I caught up with her and her husband Ron at the ACBRA Finals doing their thing, being gracious sponsors and running barrels. If you don’t know her, you are missing her infectious laugh and contagious smile. Betty is 58 years young and told me with a laugh, “Her occupation these days is staying alive.” Really, she and Ron are cattle ranchers, hay and almond growers, and Betty is riding and training barrel horses – two in training for the 2016 barrel futurities.
Her immediate family consists of: her partner in life, her husband Ron; her son John Grohl the sheriff; and her son and daughter-in-law, Patrick and Amy Grohl. Pat and Amy own and operate Premier Equine Center. It is one of the largest rehab facilities for horses in the state of California.
Betty began riding, as so many of us did, as a kid. She started on some really unbroke horses when she was high school age. She began running barrels after being married and starting her family. Betty’s first barrel horse was Ron’s tie-down roping horse. She stated, “He was the kind of horse you could only make one run on.” Then, she is happy to say, she “found Marilyn Camarillo” and got some help.
When I asked Betty what special awards stood out in her barrel racing career this is what she said: Her first real big win was the 1982 California Cowboys Professional Rodeo Assoc. Finals. She won the average. She is also proud of the saddles she has won at the 2004 American West Barrel Racing Association, winning the Open year end and the Finals average. In 2011 she won the WCBRA year-end championship and a saddle also. She has also been the National Barrel Horse Association 2D State Champion, another saddle. She won second, behind Linda Vick, at an American West race on her stallion, MP Haypatch Tiger. It was the first time he had ever been off the ranch. MP Haypatch Tiger is from the first crop of only two foals by Dinero, aka PC Frencmans Hayday. MP Hay Patch Tiger’s dam is by Lay A Patch and is a full sister to Trouble’s dam (Sherry Cervi’s gray NFR standout). Most recently she has won on her home bred and trained mare Dash Ta Tiger Fame, aka Piper. This hard working gray mare has also hit some barrels in runs with times that would have won the whole race. She won the C-N Futurity as well as the Lita Scott Futurity on her, and let me tell you their winning ways continue. Last year at the West Coast Finals she was 8th in the second round and 12th in the third with over 500 entries. Betty states that one of her most memorable moments came at a Run2Win race where she came off of her horse and broke her wrist. I found Betty to be a very modest person.
Ron and Betty own about 40 head of horses give or take a few, she says with a laugh. Pedro Pelayo works for her and Ron and does the first rides on the future stars of MP Hay Patch Tiger as two year olds. Betty takes them over at three years and finishes the training on the ones that are not sold to other barrel racers.
Now comes the incredible, frightening and life-changing part. This is also a very inspiring love story. In October of 2012, Betty had a traumatic brain injury. She and Ron went to go and sort off some cow pairs. She does not remember all of this, but has been told some of the details. She was finished, so she took the bridle off of her horse and put the halter on him. As she looked over, one of the cows was getting away. So as lots of us good cowgirls would do, she hopped on her horse with only the halter and rope to control him with. He is a great horse that just got scared, as she put it. Ron tried to cut him off and slow him down but couldn’t get to her in time. The gelding ran scared and tried to jump a wire gate. He got tangled up in the gate and flipped over it and onto her. The doctors worked on Betty for eight hours. She had broken ribs, a collapsed lung and a brain bleed. The doctors informed Ron that if Betty made it through the next three days, she may just make it. There was no way to tell at this time what brain function she would have. Betty was in a coma for the next month. Her extended family, us barrel racers, watched for Ron’s posts on social media and prayed about her progress for the months to come. Ron very rarely left her side. At one point, Ron was told she would need to be in an assisted care facility for the rest of her life. Ron explained to them, “You don’t know Betty.” Ron was very instrumental in her rehab. I don’t think it would have turned out so well without Ron encouraging her. Her first days out of the hospital were like starting all over. She even had to be told what trees were. Ron’s mother and sister brought Betty a stuffed horse, when she went through a phase where she thought she was a four-year-old girl. Betty played with and carried the horse around the hospital for many days. She always knew who Ron was, but not her sons. Betty told me it bothers her most that she can’t remember her childhood. So enough of that and on to the good times. I am sure happy to be writing this article, because Betty is back in the saddle again and competing at the barrel races. I hear she even won a local jackpot the other night. Her winning ways continue. Betty was just awarded the 2015 WPRA California Circuit True Grit Cowgirl Award. True Grit is something Betty seems to have been born with. True Grit is courage, honor, fortitude, strength, fearlessness, backbone, spirit and braveness. Betty has all of these.
Betty informed me that her favorite barrel race is the West Coast Finals at the Diamond Bar Arena and her favorite rodeo is the California Ro-Day-O in Salinas. She was entered in Salinas this year, but her horse came up sore so she just had to watch Ron rope. Of course, the training never ends. When I talked to her in Salinas, she was riding next year’s futurity hopeful and getting him used to all of the excitement.
Her favorite barrel horse of all time is her home grown Dash Ta Tiger Fame, aka Piper.
She said it was hard for her to say who her favorite barrel racer was, stating, “There are lots of them.” She did however mention Sherry Cervi, Charmayne James and Marilyn Camarillo as a few on that list.
Even after all Betty has been through, she still loves the thrill of training a horse to run fast and turn a tight barrel. She loves to compete and in fact stated, “riding is what kept her going and gave her the will to get better and get up and get going.”
I asked her what her ideal barrel horse is? She said with a laugh, “A winner, what else matters?” But she did mention that she likes them about 15.1 hands tall. She also prefers mares over geldings. They can have a second job when done barrel racing. She loves to raise horses. Geldings can only be pasture ornaments or baby sitters. And I must say, I agree.
Betty has attended a couple of barrel clinics in her career. She has been to work with Marilyn Camarillo, as well as Sharon Camarillo. But, her number one mentor is Ron Grohl. While she has struggled to get back to her winning form in the barrel pen, Ron is always on the sidelines. He is after her to get her hand down or to switch hands on the reins as she is running. You see, for the first year back, she could only ride with one hand. At first, as she was making her come back, Ron would tell her, “Well good job, you stayed on.” Of course here comes that laugh of hers that makes me smile. She says, “Ron takes very good care of me.” And I say, “It shows.” When she did hit the ground at that Run2Win barrel race, she broke her wrist. On the way to the doctor to get it x-rayed, Ron told her that she was not going to go to any more barrel races until she started working out with a trainer. She got signed up and started working. He not only worked on her physical strength he worked on her brain. She waited about 8 weeks before going to the next barrel races. She did however, not wait to start riding again. She was back on her horses in four days after her fall. I will definitely say that Betty has True Grit.
Next year’s goals are just to do well and of course to win another futurity on one of her homebred horses. She wants to make a few more barrel horses and be in the top 12 at the West Coast Finals. I for one, believe she will do just that.
When I asked her, “What do you do for fun?” Betty said, “what else is there?” We raise and ride horse and now of course, I work out. Ok, now she sounds like me. LOL
And in case you forgot what did happen to her, when I asked her what she likes to read, her reply was, “Not reading just now, since the accident, but working on that.”
Betty’s favorite animals are her horses and her miniature Border Collie and her Borgie dogs. She likes to listen to country music and watch Answered Prayers and Junk Gypsies. She says that she might like to visit Scotland or Ireland, but is not all that concerned about it. She has been across most of the United States and her favorite trip was to Hawaii 38 years ago where she honeymooned with her best friend Ron.
She says the best advice you can give or be given, is to believe in yourself, you can do it. God has a plan!!
I was a little afraid to ask her what her best memory is like after all that has happened to her, but I did. “Marrying Ron and honeymooning in Hawaii 38 years ago” is what she said. She feels so blessed he puts up with her and for nursing her back to health, not just once but twice. You see, many years ago she was kicked in the stomach and had to undergo surgery.
I find that just talking to Betty makes me smile. She is an inspiration. She has outrun me and many others at the barrel races over the years – I might add on several horses. And injuries can happen to any of us. It is all in how we deal with them and how hard we are willing to work to make that comeback. And Betty is on her way back to the winners circle, no doubt. She is very blessed to have Ron, and she stated “God just didn’t want me quite yet,” then corrected herself and said “I mean, God is just not done with me down here yet.” I would have to agree.
Ron added to my story by telling me that she was begging to ride after she got home from the hospital. He put her on his rope horse and the first thing she did was start bending and flexing him. I loved his next comment, “No matter how hard you hit a barrel racer in the head, you can’t knock the barrel racer out of them.” He has had days where he questioned himself for letting her ride and barrel race. She would fall forward at the first barrel and it would scare him to death. Then the next race she would be first or second in the 1D. They both really give a lot of credit to Piper for being so good and helping Betty on her road to recovery.
Ron also wants everyone to know that Betty still remembers most of the people she was good friends with before the accident. Since the accident she has some trouble though remembering people. She may talk to you for an hour and two days later not recognize you. Ron wants to make sure people don’t think of Betty as rude or stuck up. It is just one of the things that her brain still has trouble with. She loves talking to people, so if she looks at you and does not act like she knows you, please just keep talking, she loves to talk.
Betty definitely has True Grit.
Betty Grohl and Piper, winning the first C–N Futurity. (Wayne A.G. Coe Photography)
Betty Grohl (right) Open saddle winner at the 2004 ACBRA Finals, with Shelley Holman and Tami Semas.
