The Rodeo Queen's Touchdown

Parker “Hurry up! We need to load the horses in the trailer. Trey better be there already,” my best friend and roommate, LeeAnne, shouts at me. I check the mirror again before leaving my room. The black button-down cotton shirt is tucked nicely into my bootcut blue jeans. I grabbed my black cowboy hat and overnight duffel bag and head to the door of our dorm room. It’s a nice room, a little small for the two of us with some of our equipment, but we could not find an apartment near campus before the start of the year. They were already snatched up by other students. Our room is in the nicer dorm with having two twin beds on opposite sides with a nightstand between them. There are two desks at the foot of each bed and a dresser built into each wall and one large closet that we share with the small bathroom close to the door. It’s home for now. LeeAnne only has this year left and then gets to go on with the rest of her life. When I got to the door, LeeAnne was double-checking her duffel, “Got everything?” “Just need to grab my boots then all set,” I reply. “Alright Chica, lets hit the road,” she whoops enthusiastically. LeeAnne loves to travel, though we are not going anywhere new. This is our weekend to travel to Casper, Wyoming. It is my third year and her fourth competing at this arena. I love the Casper Fairgrounds. The arena is bright and open, with sunshine coming from the open-air stadium. The dirt always seems to be turned, giving it a light and loose feeling. The horses’ hooves seem to lift their legs easier, leading to a smoother ride. We hop into my black Jeep Wrangler; in case you could not tell black is my favorite color and drive off to the college’s boarding barn. My brother, Trey, should already be there with his truck hitched to our trailer. In college rodeo, student riders need to bring their own horse, equipment, and means of traveling. Team members can always hitch a ride with someone if they did not have their own trailer, but the college does not provide one for the team. The three-horse slant trailer was a gift to Trey from our parents when he was a freshman. He had trouble securing rides with his teammates, and our parents did not want him to miss out. Trey usually does bronc riding and steer wrestling, but since he is also a kicker on the football team, he only does steer wrestling during the fall season. Don’t want him to get hurt before he can make a name for himself. Trey is a carbon copy of our father. He has black hair and blue eyes with a tall, slim body. I tell him that he is skinny, but Mom says that he is lanky because he is a kicker, and they need lean bodies, not all muscley like many of the other positions in football. His lean body also helps him ride those bucking broncs better. Dad was raised on a livestock ranch and so knows his way around bucking horses and bulls. In his high school days, Dad also played football, though as a defensive lineman. He is a bit bulkier than my brother. My mom was a cheerleader. She has black hair too with brown eyes. It takes ten minutes for us to reach the barn, and when we pull in, we see Trey has indeed hooked up the trailer but also moved it out front to make loading up easier. It is a nice barn with two indoor arenas and three outdoor arenas for riding and four pastures to let horses loose. Two of the larger pastures keep horses in them all the time, but there are also stalls lining each of the three indoor arenas for horses to stay. Each boarder has an indoor tack room that feels more like a studio apartment with how large it is. Trey, LeeAnne, and I share one of the tack rooms because we do not keep too much in the barn. We keep all our travel equipment ready in the trailer. It makes loading up easier when we do not have to move a ton of equipment from one place to another. There are all types of boarders at the barn. Most are college students like us but there are also a few locals. Most people ride western in Bozeman, Montana. I have seen some people ride English and am fascinated when I watch show jumping exhibitions. There is a team that does equitation which is quite different than rodeo. Instead of having different types of events that require different animals or routines, western equitation competes in an arena and do flat work, such as walking, jogging, and loping in a large circle. While rodeo is mostly a timed sport with some exceptions, western eq is based on style and how well you look on the horse. I am not sure if I could do that type of showing. I may get bored riding in a large circle with a bunch of other people while someone tells me what pace I need to be going all while looking perfect doing it. “It’s about time you two got here,” Trey joked. “Haha. We have at least another hour before we have to hit the road,” I respond exasperatedly. He makes the same thing every time he beats us to the barn. “Besides, it takes time to reach this level of perfection,” LeeAnne asserts, doing a twirl to show off her outfit. She always looks glamorous, but today she is dressed in black skinny jeans, a pale pink button-down silk blouse, and baby blue rhinestone covered cowboy boots. Her rhinestone belt matches each piece of her outfit. Her hair was loosely curled, and make-up done to perfections. LeeAnne is definitely the supermodel between the two of us, with her strawberry blonde hair and shiny hazel eyes. Her medium height and slight build make her body perfect for anything that she wanted to do. LeeAnne is the most fashionable person that I know. She likes to be put together before going anywhere, but this morning we both decided to do our hair and make-up since the competition will probably already be started by the time that we get there. None of compete first thing in the rodeo, so we opted to sleep in a little and start the drive later in the morning, 5 am. Chuckling and shaking his head, Trey said lovingly, “You would still be perfect without all the make-up.” He grabbed LeeAnne’s hips and pulled her in for a quick peck on the lips. Now they were relationship goals. Trey and I have known LeeAnne since grade school. Her father, Stan, is a rodeo producer, in charge of hiring and promoting rodeos all over Montana. He often hires our father to bring in the stock. Our parents run a very popular stock contracting business, providing livestock for rodeos all over the country. We also raise sheep and goats that are used, but our horses, bulls, and calves are the most in demand. As I was saying, Trey, LeeAnne, and I grew up together, often traveling and competing together. She and Trey spent their younger school years in almost all of the same classes and then decided to go to the same college since MSU was close to home and had their desired teams and majors. During their freshman year, they shared the same social circle, so often went to the same parties. It was at one of these parties that Trey caught LeeAnne kissing a hockey player. Jealous, he stomped over to the couple, socked the hockey player, and passionately kissed LeeAnne. They have been the cutest couple ever since. “Alright ladies, grab what you need and let’s load up. We need to hit the road,” Trey ordered playfully, swatting LeeAnne across her ass. We ran into the tack room and grabbed whatever was not already in the trailer. Since we have been competing since little kids, we have two sets of almost everything. We keep one set of saddles and pads into the trailer but keep the bridles in the tack room. We also keep a couple sets of grooming kits in the trailer’s tack room. Once the all the needed equipment was set up, we grabbed the horses out of their stalls, put on their traveling boots, and loaded them into the trailer. As we were walking towards the cab of the truck, a voice I didn’t expect to hear called out, “Are you guys finally ready to go? Aaron Stevens was every girl’s wet dream. At 6’5”, his muscular body all but demanded attention. With brown hair and blue eyes, he can totally be described as the all-American football player. He is the starting quarterback as well as Trey’s best friend. But his body is not all there is to him. A lot of people overlook his intelligence and compassion because he can both throw a far distance and outrun other players trying to sack him. We are good friends though do not often hang out because he is busy with the football season and then offseason workouts and doing everything that he can to get drafted into the NFL. At times, I feel a zing pass between us, but it might be all in my head. Aaron has never made a pass at me, so I guess my feelings might be all one-sided. Aaron is the type of guy who can get any girl he wants but does not play around like other athletes. He has had a few steady girlfriends, but none has lasted for very long. “Hey man. Yeah, we are all set. Let’s get driving,” Trey answered as he and LeeAnne got in the front seats and Aaron and I climbed in the back of the cab. LeeAnne connected her playlist to the truck’s Bluetooth system and played our travel mix. We spent the first hour of the drive dancing in our seats and singing along with all the songs. We stopped at McDonalds in Billings for a quick breakfast and then hit the road again. We were silently watching the scenery pass when Trey broke the silence. “So, you sure you want to do this Parks?” he asks using the nickname that he has called me since we were teenagers. “Absolutely, Recreation,” I answer using his nickname, “I feel totally confident and actually excited to do it.” “Well, I think that you are totally nuts to do this,” LeeAnne adds her opinion. She has been trying to talk me out of doing this since she found out. “Nah, she’s got this. Parker has been preparing her whole life. She was riding before she was walking and will probably outride all the guys,” Trey declares proudly. “What is she going to do?” Aaron asks. “I am entering the bull riding event this competition,” I let him know matter-of-factly. Aaron looks a little taken aback. “Isn’t that dangerous for you?” he asks, looking between Trey and me. “Not anymore dangerous than for the guys. Parks has been riding bulls since she was a little girl. Dad used to have us show off the bulls and horses for potential buyers,” Trey informs him. “Still, she is so small…” Aaron almost sounded panicked. Could he be worried about me? He has never showed this amount of worry any other time, so I did not know that he really cared about me. We hang out sometimes, but I try to steer away from him. Whenever we are close, I feel this rush of electricity run through me that makes me want to run my hands all over him. I bet it feels amazing to grab his muscles as he thrusts in and out of me. He makes a cameo in my dreams when I pull out my vibrator. Shaking my head to clear those thoughts, I answer him, “It’s better that I am so small. Lower center of gravity helps me to keep my seat better. Also, being so light does not put as much pressure on my arm to keep my body in place.” Aaron looked like he wasn’t quite convinced, but let the conversation drop. As the ride progressed, the four of us fell into easy conversations, usually about our schoolwork or friends we have in common. LeeAnne would interject with some gossip, and we would laugh at the ridiculousness of our classmates. The rest of the drive went quickly and all too soon, Trey was pulling into the parking lot of the fairgrounds. He found a spot with the trailers that contained the rest of the team. Time to get our game faces on and get to work.