She turned her can’ts into cans and dreams into plans
Host: BK Trick Riding
Written by Becky Klingenberg – Owner, BK Trick Riding.
It was last year I was talking with my sister Joni Rose who said “Bec you only get 100 years, if you’re lucky. So what are you going to do with yours?” This has been the strongest influencing question I have ever been asked. It was really confronting that our days are numbered and our lives aren’t promised.
The one thing that came to mind consistently was my goal of getting to America and trick riding. Our minds can make our lives so limiting. We can always find an excuse if we want one, but I found the more you vocalise your ambitions the universe really is full of offerings. Through talking about my passion at our social club one night, it just so happened that my manager’s wife lived in America for nine years. She really broke down all these limiting misconceptions I had put in my mind. It was then two months later in August 2016 I booked my ticket for a six week stint in the USA. I got to go intern with the Riata Ranch Cowboy Girls in Three Rivers, California. A dream I have dreamt since meeting two of their best performers Bec Circosta and Sarah Thompson at the Sydney Royal Show in 2014.
She dreams more often then she sleeps.
“You earn your reputation in the arena, but, you earn your respect in the barn” – Jennifer Welch Nicholson, Riata Ranch International.
Bucking out the big bird from 30,000 ft all the way from Darwin to LAX.
Being able to tick off goals is so empowering, you get to keep reinventing yourself – so travelling to America was a huge eye opener. It’s true – everything is bigger over there, not just in Texas! On my first trip I got to go on the rodeo road with the Riata Ranch Cowboy Girls performance team as an intern. Being surrounded by such beauty and talent was seriously overwhelming. The trick runs were huge – sometimes they were the size of a football field! Their productions are out of this world, and after one rodeo they load up into their big Dodge Ram rodeo truck, hauling a four horse trailer and head off to the next one all summer! I mean, what a life.
The expectations are high and their delivery is phenomenal. Professionalism is their game, and I fell in love with who they are and what they stand for. Riata Ranch is like no other, it’s a unique place where men and woman are drawn to it for its ability to grow talent regardless of what your background is. They develop skills and nurture passions. With this whole new life opening up in front of me, the entire time I was over there I just kept trying to work out how I could get back. I went over there with enough savings to live and to shop (ha ha), but after the first week I was budgeting so I could return sooner than later.
The crew here at Kidman Springs are so encouraging towards me and my trick riding passion, they were all so accommodating when the opportunity arose to head back this year for a three month internship. I thought Easter, my birthday, and Christmas had all come at once. So this year I got to really be apart of the brand. I had my own responsibilities, and special jobs in the team as well as each day learning and training towards one day performing with them. I have started manifesting my return to for fill my full ultimate dream. Watch this space!
Mumma and I at the Walt Disney castle “If you build it they will come”.
Travelling through the U S of A
My Mum and I travelled for three weeks around the states, each having a list of to-do’s and see that we almost needed a holiday after our holiday! We ticked off Disney Land, Graceland, Nashville, Memphis, Alabama, Santa Monica, but the most memorable was Texas!
I think it’s every cowboy and cowgirls dream to go to Texas. When you’re out here on the cattle stations you ride around pretending to be John Wayne or Calamity Jane. This here was written by one of my good pals Jess Munro, an Aussie Cowgirl who just came back from the states chasing her dreams and goals in the horse training business, it’s a cracker poem and sums it up pretty bloody good for us Aussies who love a bit of humour.
Well Texas you ain’t done no good to me,
You hot and full of Mexicans why don’t you set me free,
Heck they say this God’s country of this here land,
But hell that I really never did understand.
Well you call yourselves the mighty great big southern,
But if you travel a further south than you might experience all of a sudden,
Us Aussie cowboys we don’t need fancy clothes,
Or crazy exotic leather to cover our toes.
I’ve never heard a handy ringer talk about his mates or boast,
You Texans all I hear is whose moustache has grown the most,
And y’all might all be handy with a rope,
But I’d love to see you in the gulf country trying to throw a mickey blowing smoke,
Oh and so they say y’all are quite the horseman?
But you’ve never quite experienced the feel chasing cattle on a Conman.
And I bet y’all think all us Aussies sound pretty funny,
But I’ll tell ya when we look you in the eye an shake your hand it will sure mean something,
Well whilst I’m visiting your country the USA,
I’ll always greet you with a mighty big G’day,
And tell you some wild an reckless stories you probably won’t comprehend,
For I only dream every night to feel the Australian red dirt again.
My custom made BK Sheerer saddle.
The Rolls Royce of saddles.
Richard L Sheerer the Rolls Royce of Trick riding saddles
Have you ever head the saying “good saddles ain’t cheap, and cheap saddles ain’t good”? Well, it’s true. When it comes to trick riding you certainly do not want a cheap saddle. Owning a Richard L Sheerer saddle is the ultimate goal. Richards’s studio is in Colorado, USA. I was working for a horse trainer at the time who had around 13 saddles, and I never used mine. So I chose to sell both stock saddles, one was a John Arnold that I just adored and the other was a Beresford saddle, which I knew if I committed to selling I would never afford to own another one. That’s the extreme and desperate measures I took to get into this game, I needed to sell two saddles valued at $7500 AU together to purchase one of Richards.
Sheerer saddles are fully customised to every individual. His craftsmanship and attention to detail is what separates his from any other.
Aussie Aussie Aussie.
What now I’m back on home soil?
I have been back at Kidman since July, and I have hit the ground running. It never stops and that’s the beauty of it.
Since back we have performed at Adelaide River Junior Rodeo, Kununurra Bushman’s Rodeo, and Pussy Cat Bore Rodeo plus running workshops. At the end of the month my partner and I head to Broome to run a trick riding workshop, which was sparked by a keen enthusiast over there and together we are making it happen. I have a bunch of goals set, and the hard work has already started. I’m really keen to learn more about the art of training a liberty horse and I have a couple of key tricks I am busting to perfect. 1% every day and in 100 days you should be 100% . . . right?
Trick riding is what I absolutely love and I hope one day I can devote every day to it.
Right now I’m on the journey of my life and I couldn’t be happier.