Dear Ropers,

Hope you all are doing well. Summer is sneaking up on us and as the temperature begins to get hot hopefully your roping will too. Surely all that spring practice is going to pay off! So be sure you don?t miss any of our summer roping. June 7th and 8th will start us off at Athens, Texas. This will be a #4pt roping capped at a #2. Then we head north to Fort Smith, Arkansas on July 12th & 13th (last year?s roping was one if our biggest ropings of the year). This year you will have a huge chance to win a saddle at Fort Smith. We are giving 20 Running P Saddles away in Arkansas!! So mark in on your calendar and plan to attend one of our greatest ropings of the year.
May?s roping was in Deridder, La. While we were there we had some Louisianans show us what there roping was all about! And it wasn?t too shabby. 1st in the average was 2 guys from the Cajun state, Todd Rachal and Cade Brister with a 37.87 on 4. Brister sat 1st, 2nd and 3rd high call back. Cleaning up his 2nd high back for the win and slipping a leg on the others for 3rd with header Brett Herring and 4th with Jay Berza. Cade took home $2100 two saddles and a buckle. Not a bad weekend for the #3 heeler. 2nd place went to the 5th high call back and that was Ricky Crochet and Josh Nugent. These guys had a 9.59 on their call back steer which in turn gave them a total of 41.11. Sure after roping them just knowing that Cade had 3 of the top 4 runs left to go had to make them wonder if their run would hold for a saddle. But luckily for them it did! We always enjoy going to Louisiana and everyone at the Deridder Beauragard Parish Civic Center was just outstanding to work with! The only way we would like the facility and more is if it was in our back yard!
Don?t forget the shootout spots from all of our ropings. If you place in the top 5% (some ropings top 10%) then you are eligible for our finals. Our finals is 100% payback and last year first in the average took home $30,000 in cash plus some great prizes! And don?t think it was just top loaded, it paid quite respectively down through the lower placing. If you don?t know if you have received a 2003 shootout (by placing in the top %) then you may go to our website at AATRCROPE.COM and all the info is posted there. Along with our upcoming ropings and all our past results.
In closing I want to share with you about a letter I got. It is one that we all have and will receive. When we receive it, it brings such surprise that you can not believe that it is happening to you. Yes, that is right your 10 year class reunion! Although the years add up it doesn?t seem right. As I was reading the letter of where it would be and all, I came across a questionnaire form. Most of just info on you and your family and then I came to the last question that made me think. ?What advice would you tell your 18 year old self?? Wow! If only it could really happen if I could make that phone call and talk to me at the fragile age of 18. To speak to my younger more immature self. Maybe I would not make some of the mistakes that I look back on. Maybe I would have listened!! I have never been one to learn from others mistakes I liked that real life hands on approach. Well, back to the question of the advice I would give. As I have thought all week on this many thoughts have come into my mind. One was that life goes too fast so stop trying to grow up so fast! And please don?t waist your time on _______ he is a LOSER! Also that your future is determined on what you make of it. You can be anything you want to be no matter how big it seems it just comes from your 3 d?s dreams, determination and discipline. You might also want to start finishing the things that you start! Also remember your family!!! When no one else is there for you your family will be. And remember people don?t live forever. And keep your morals and ethics high. Not ever compromising your beliefs. But if I could only tell myself one thing I know what it would be. It would sum up everything ??..Proverbs 3:5 & 6 ?Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight?. As graduation has approached many will be going to college or off to the real world and I would like to send this message out to them. All the answers to life are in this one simple yet powerful verse. Let it be your advice that you will take and live by. Maybe it didn?t come from yourself 10 years in the future but if you take it and apply it when your 10 year reunion comes you can say ?I wouldn?t change a thing!? And for you guys who think it is too late for you, well you are wrong there is no time like the present. Let today be the first day of the rest of your life!
Be blessed,
Kelly Norman
AATRC / Fear Not Productions