Hold on to your cowboy hats, folks, because we’ve got a rodeo story that’ll make y’all laugh and cry at the same time. Amanda Paquette, a mama from Independence, Va. moved her family to cattle country to escape “the concrete jungle” of Naples, Fla. Son Preston, a first-grader, jumped into the local scene with both boots and wanted to ride bulls. It’s a sport that Paquette says teaches “self-sufficiency and grit,” but as she watched nervously through the metal bars of the rodeo fencing, she couldn’t help wondering how much grit it took to put a 7-year-old on a roughly 600-pound bull calf. To say she was racked with anxiety is an understatement. Her palms were dripping with sweat, her hands shaky, and her stomach felt like a tumbleweed in a windstorm. We can all relate to that feeling, am I right?
But let’s back up a bit, because the story started out on the heels of a tragedy. Just weeks before, 14-year-old Denim Bradshaw suffered a fatal injury while bull riding at the same rodeo. This left Paquette in a sticky situation. She wanted her son to participate, but she also wanted to protect him from any danger. “It’s heart-wrenching,” she said, “but I don’t want to put him in a bubble. You have to let them enjoy life.” Ain’t that the truth?
Preston’s family had recently moved to the area from the Sunshine State to start a new life, free from the hustle and bustle of the city. They had seven acres of land to play on, and that meant spending most of their free time outdoors. Preston found himself drawn to cattle, chickens, and the family’s 3,000-square-foot vegetable garden, but he quickly became enamored with the local rodeo scene. After watching a co-worker’s 6-year-old son participate in a mutton busting event, where small children ride on the backs of sheep like bull riders, Preston was hooked. And so, it began.
At his first rodeo, he was only able to stay on for a second before the bull calf bucked him to the ground. Undeterred, he kept at it, eventually joining the tight-knit rodeo community full-time, much to the delight of his mother. However, it also meant that she had to deal with the harsh reality of rodeo life, a world where serious injuries and broken bones are a part of the game. Yeehaw.
Though Amanda Paquette had to fight her motherly instincts to let her son participate in such a dangerous activity, she also knew that the rodeo was part of life in their Appalachian community. It was where her son could become part of the close-knit group, make male role models, and learn important lessons. When it came to supporting him, she was at the forefront, buckling and securing his helmet before