Hi Everyone,
First of all, Happy New Year! I hope everybody had a great holiday season, and are seeing their New Year’s resolutions through with some success up to this point. It’s our time. With the New Year, I am pumped for big things.
The day after Christmas my Papa and I followed Jordan Ketscher and Dexter Udall down to Arizona to rope and enjoy the sunshine for a couple weeks. Thank you to Dexter and his family for their hospitality down there. We had a great time, and got to rope a bunch. There is nowhere else you can enjoy roping in the sunshine any more than you can down there this time of year. I had a lot of fun, and got to spend some time with Derrick Begay and Aaron Tsinigine down there too. Thank you to them for showing us around some. We’ve now been down there the last two years during Christmas break, and I’d recommend it to anyone who can make the trip. It was fun to be around some other young guys who I’ve gotten to know over the years and rope with. Between Trey Yates (JD’s son), Cole Sherwood (Matt’s nephew), Ryan Reed, Bryce Palmer, and Jake Minor (Riley and Brady’s cousin), we got to be around a lot of talent. I love being around people like that. It helps raise your game, trying to hang on their level. My advice to anyone wanting to raise their game would be to surround themselves with good people who rope better than them. It drives you. Getting to rope everyday for good money at the jackpots down there is something you can’t emulate anywhere else. It’s a different feel than even practicing everyday. We love to compete, and it was a great opportunity. Jordan and I embarrassed Dexter and our friend T.J. Jewell on the golf course one day too, and won $14 from them. Can’t let them forget about that anytime soon.
We stayed as long as we could down there, before school started again. I am back at it at Cal Poly- San Luis Obispo. The spring college rodeos are about a month away. I’m enjoying following the early winter standing in ProRodeo. It is fun to see some new teams like Nick Sartain and Rich Skelton, and Brock Hanson and Kory Koontz. Those are two new teams that I see having some of the best success.
Congrats to Clay Smith and Will Woodfin on winning the jackpot at Odessa. I roped with Clay back in 2006 at the Jr. World Team Roping Championships, and got to see Will around back at the College National Finals Rodeo last summer. Two young, good guys that rope really well. Some of the future names of this sport
I was sure happy the Ravens won the Super Bowl. Being a Californian, I was sure outnumbered by the Forty-Niners fans out here. Ray Lewis is such an inspirational character. To see the passion he lives with is exceptional. That is something we can all dig deeper to achieve each and everyday. Live with a purpose. Do something every single day that makes you better. Do something that makes the life of someone else better. It’s satisfying. It is so easy to make someone’s day. I’ve had a lot of good talks with people I’ve been traveling around with lately on the long drives about this. You never know when the greatest day of your life could be. Don’t restrict yourself. Don’t set limits. Don’t sweat the small things.
Thanks for following the Facebook updates we brought to you through Ropers Sports News’s page during the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in December too. I appreciate all the support. Hope your lives get even greater every single day. Talk to you all soon.
It’s my journey, and your experience.
Lane Santos-Karney