Written by Almabeth (Carroll) Kaess
In April 2024, the Women’s Rodeo World Championship launched a new classification called the “Limited”. This new classification is focused on encouraging a specific demographic of barrel racers and breakaway ropers to nominate their competitions.
From the breakaway perspective, the new classification is poised to open a new set of opportunities for women who meet the classification’s criteria.
Starting any new physical activity, or coming back to one after the age of 50, takes a lot of dedication and willpower. The Limited-eligible breakaway competitors must commit to becoming competition-ready from a physical, mental, and skillset perspective. That doesn’t mean we need to get ourselves fitting into the jeans we wore at 20, it just means that we seriously look at getting our arms, shoulders, and core toned and strong.
We also need to get our mindset ready to compete. When you’ve been raising kids, pursuing careers, or running businesses for several decades, and have not been in a physically competitive setting, there is some mindset work to be done. Today there is a wealth of resources, many of them free that specifically address improving mental performance in competition. Read, listen, watch, and follow those who can help you develop the competitive mindset you will need.
Next, immediately seek help from the many experts in this business. Most of us in this age group were pretty handy with a horse and a rope ‘back in our day’ but with time—change happens. My experience has been that when I finally decided I needed to throw out what I thought I once knew about roping and ask for help, I discovered new, and better ways of roping; as a result, my roping elevated greatly.
And finally…ladies, you have to SHOW UP! That means once you’ve progressed to a reasonable point in your preparedness, you need to enter. Yes, you will do a lot of donating, but with each competition run, there are lessons to be learned that you can’t learn on the dummy or in the practice pen. I love the quote LEARN, BURN AND RETURN. I recall an interview that Jackie Crawford gave after an unsuccessful run and she was was asked what went wrong in the run, and with a twinkle in her eye she answered, “What Run?”. We too, need to develop short memories and extract only the lessons learned from every run.
The next stakeholders who can impact the success of the Limited breakaway classification are the Pros and Challengers. Within your communities, you know women who once competed in this sport. Seek them out, and with your encouragement, coaching, and friendship bring them back into the sport they once loved. Explain the opportunities that are now being developed for them through the WRWC and provide your mentorship. At the ropings, look for the women who could be eligible for the classification and make a connection. When they pull up to a roping and the oldest roper there is the same age as their oldest child, they often feel a little out of place. Having you welcome them into your circles is encouraging and could be the difference between someone showing up to rope next week, or going home and tossing their rope bag into the garage sale box.
The breakaway roping producers are the final group of stakeholders who can help grow and expand the Limited classification. Given the success that barrel racing and team roping have had with D formats, number and age classifications, and side-pots, perhaps it’s time for breakaway roping producers to experiment more aggressively with utilizing some of those formats, focused on competition opportunities for the beginning or Limited roper.
As a Limited roper, I certainly don’t want a free roll, but I’ve occasionally felt discouragement when my awesome (for me) 3.5-second run is nowhere close to the pay window. I’ve still got to do my job by roping all of my calves and continually trying to get faster; however, if my only option for entering a competition is going head-to-head against the 2-second jackpot ropers, experience up to this point has indicated that I’ll have few nomination successes.
My hat is tipped to the WRWC for the organization’s foresight and innovation in women’s rodeo competition and for creating a classification that provides the older roper with a tangible goal for accomplishment. I truly believe that under their leadership, and with the support of the competitors and roping producers, the funnel of breakaway roping competitors across three generations will continually be filled.
About the author:
Almabeth (Carroll) Kaess is a WRWC Limited-eligible breakaway roper who started her journey back in the arena just 5 years ago after a 40-year hiatus. She is a former Miss Rodeo America (1978) and the daughter of a PRCA Gold Card calf roper. Like many in her generation, she thought her last college rodeo was the end of her breakaway roping career. Five years ago, with the resurgence of breakaway roping competitions, she began roping again. She has become a strong advocate for women from her generation to rediscover their passion for roping. abckaess@gmail.com
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