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[00:01.38] John: Okay. So Sarah, you said you participated in rodeos before but I thought only men ride horses in rodeos?
[00:10.88] Sarah: Yeah. Like 99.9% of the time, the men do all of the rodeo sports. There's like two sports for women and the rest of them are all for men.
[00:24.88] John: Oh.
[00:25.38] Sarah: When I said I wanted to do the traditionally male events, they said, "You can't do that.
[00:34.88] You're a woman. You have to do these other events that are not dangerous. They're safe."
[00:41.88] For example, the men do calf roping. You work with a baby cow, a calf that's about 100 pounds.
[00:49.88] The women do goat roping.
[00:53.63] And they work with a tiny goat that's about the size of a small dog.
[01:00.38] So I just always thought the difference was stupid. I don't want to do the easy, safe event.
[01:08.38] I want to do the difficult event and people were really surprised. And first, they said, "You can't." And I said, "I'm going to anyways."
[01:18.38] John: Wow!
[01:19.13] Sarah: And the first time I did the saddle bronc, they said, "Look, look, look. We got you a girl horse because you're a girl."
[01:26.63] John: Oh my.
[01:27.38] Sarah: And I thought, "Well, you didn't need to draw more attention to it.
[01:32.88] I just want to compete like everyone else."
[01:35.88] John: Right.
[01:36.63] Sarah: And my first time, I fell off the horse and I was really injured.
[01:43.88] And I was laying there and one of my friends came running out.
[01:47.88] And he said – I thought he was going to help me up and help me leave because I was really hurt.
[01:54.63] And instead he said, "Hurry up! You got to get off the – you get out of the arena because the next person wants to go."
[02:02.13] John: Oh, wow!
[02:02.88] Sarah: And I was really happy that he said that actually because he was just treating me the way he treated any other competitor. "Oh, get up. Be tough. You're fine."
[02:12.13] John: Yeah.
[02:13.38] Sarah: And I didn't want anyone to help me.
[02:14.88] John: So he didn't help you.
[02:15.38] Sarah: Right. And I was really glad that he was treating me like everyone else.
[02:20.13] And when you see a rodeo, you'll see that the women do events where they can dress really nice.
[02:29.38] They always wear nice clothes, beautiful hat. They even have earrings and things on.
[02:34.88] And when the men do events, they're doing events that they really have to use their muscles and get dirty, and I really liked doing those instead.
[02:45.63] I'm not saying one is better than the other, I'm just saying I like to do the other one and I think that maybe other women like to do the other events, too.
[02:55.88] John: So do you think that the situation is improving? Are more girls joining rodeo now?
[03:03.63] Sarah: I don't think so. I think the sport of rodeo is becoming less popular.
[03:10.88] So I think in the future, there won't be more women in rodeo. There will just be fewer people in rodeo.
[03:20.38] John: Oh, I see.
[03:21.63] Sarah: Because the rodeo events, they're not very kind to the cows or the other animals.
[03:30.63] And as people get older, maybe they get more softhearted like me, and they don't want to make the animals get tied up or chase the animals.
[03:42.88] And so I think fewer people are interested in rodeo these days.
