What are you teaching your children? -- Florida Junior Rodeo Association

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Date Posted: 08:01:40 10/13/05 Thu
Author: Debi DeHass
Subject: What are you teaching your children?

Hi everybody! We were members of the FJRA for many years. Shelby just bumped up to High School this year. Fortunately we already have a lot of friends in High School rodeo that we met in Jr rodeo.

We have many friends we met through FJRA over the years and Shelby has friends throughout Florida that we otherwise may not have had a chance to meet.

I had to come see what everyone was talking about on your website. This is what I think and you can disagree with me I'm okay with that.

FJRA was a very financially stable association when we first got involve with it. Seminole Tribe wasn't donating anything and they weren't having a problem without them.

FJRA also wasn't afraid to show us how stable we were in our newsletter. Then someone decided that it was more information than the membership could handle because someone might get the great idea and sue the association.

I'll cut to this past year, we started the 2005 year by getting slammed by Hurricanes left and right. Ending it by almost not have the money or sponsors to hold the Finals and the Directors were scrambling. The Wrangler Jr rodeos added as something to scramble it up somemore.

The meetings to try to resolve our issues were verbally abrasive and it seemed everything had been decided before we were asked to meet about it. I didn't go to the last meeting because I was over it and we were done.

Due to several Hurricanes and several someone's lack of diplomacy and prepareness we had several emergencies.

Then for Finals someone threatened to sue the association because their kid was in the top twenty and they didn't make the Finals call in?

My kid has been in past years top twenty, made the call in and it never occurred to me to threaten to sue the association because she didn't get to compete at Finals.

We have made it a point to find out what we were supposed to do and did it, end of story. Shelby & I always try to play by the rules.

Last year the kids should have decided what to do - it's their association and they seemed to understand the problems and solutions better than the adults.

This thing isn't easy no matter who you are or what you are. In the end it was just hard to keep up - when the rules were either changed or bumped up without our knowledge and on the fly. We improvised as best we could. I was thankful when it was finally over.

Now - I actually have a High School rule book for review and see what the Jr rodeo rule book had referenced all these years.

To those of you who got in on the tail end of it, Seminole Tribe has donated a lot through out the years. It's been sad and disappointing to me to hear the griping I've heard over the years, every year about what was done or how it was done for this association. The "Thanks" were always undermined by the undercurrent of complaint.

It's not just hearing about Seminole that has disappointed me. Last year I was offended to hear about the trash mess and black water from trailers that was dumped in Deland.

Truely inconsiderate and ungrateful of guests to these hosting facilities. Would you tolerate this kind of behavior from guests at your home?

Remember everything one person of this association does represents the association as a whole. If possible this year it seems you've managed to take another step lower by the back biting of each other. I'm glad we've moved on at the same time I'm sad for the association.

Unfortunately in life some people are nicer than others. I'll admit I've had my own moments, some I'm proud of and some I'm not so proud of. I usually try to avoid those people and moments when I can.

As hard as it was to maintain my cool at times, occasionally I did lose it. Like when I crashed the tailgate on my brand new truck the first month I owned it at Ft McCoy because I was trying to load the bulls up to head for home and someone had conveniently parked in the loading area.

I was jumping up and down and cussing. The person who had blocked the area crosswise with his loaded truck and trailer came out wanting to fight because he was asked to move his rig after I crashed mine.

Someone told my brother he better tell me to pipe down. Wisely Dave told him we wasn't going to tell me anything right now and he got me out of there as quick as he could. Thankfully Dave and Mr. Blythe got me loaded, out of there and headed for home.

The Seminole Hollywood Horse Club also paid for repairs to my truck. Since I did it hauling the overflow of bulls we needed to hold the rodeo.

I was mad all the way home and until my truck was fixed. He hauled my tailgate home because I couldn't look at it - I was so mad.

Through all this I always tried to remember why I was at your rodeos. That is, I was trying to teach my girl something and give her an opportunity that couldn't be found anywhere else. That's the main reason we kept coming even when I didn't want to go anymore.

I'm very thankful for the years we were able to participate and all the nice people we met through your association.

To all the hardworking parents of the other kids who were always there helping in anyway they could to keep the rodeo going. Helping yours and mine, You are like Timex - You take a licking and kept on ticking.

Thanks to all the people and parents who did pick up your trash and dump somewhere besides the grounds we stayed at.

Highlighted are also some not so nice people who were not so nice to me. You were always nice to my child, thank you.

Throughout all of it we made some memories and she had a great experience that she will remember for the rest of her life! For that I am grateful and thankful.

REMEMBER:
Life is what you make it and your children are watching.

Happy Trails!

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