One Step Closer

Rodeo Life: You are on course to enter the National Finals Breakaway Roping in the top 3 of the World Standings. How are you preparing for your run at a world champion title? What would it mean to you to bring home that gold buckle?

Sawyer Gilbert: As soon as I finished out this season, I wanted to take a second and just kind of step away from going to a rodeo every day. I was going to go back to South Dakota and let my good horses out on the pasture and practice on my other ones and really, really just focus on the practicing in the arena at home. That's kind of been the game plan: to finish out the year strong and then go home and get to work on the practice side of it.

It's been my lifetime goal since I was a little kid. When I was really little Breakaway wasn't that big yet. I thought I was going to be a Team Roper to make it to the WNFR in the Team Roping, but I made it a goal that I was going to rope at Thomas and Mack.

RL: How did it feel to win the Breakaway Roping title at Cheyenne Frontier Days this year and to make history as being the first woman to have the earnings count toward the PRCA/ WPRA standings?

SG: It was pretty special. You can only say that you won Cheyenne the first time once so it was neat to just be able to do that and have that opportunity. It meant a lot to me because my traveling partner at the time was the first girl that won the first year they ever had it, so I thought it was a pretty special moment that the two girls that ever won Cheyenne got to travel together. It meant a lot to me because growing up around there, I know so many people in Cheyenne and my dad competed there. It was a surreal moment.

RL: What has it been like seeing Breakaway Roping evolving in Rodeo and making its way more and more into the pro rodeo circuit and getting opportunities at renowned rodeos such as Cheyenne Frontier Days and The American?

SG: It is such a great opportunity that we get to do this. From the committees putting it on, to add more added money, find more parking spots and stalls, it takes a pretty big village for them to do that. It is pretty special that certain people went out of their way to try to add Breakaway into a sport that has been set in its ways, so it has been a great opportunity.

RL: Are you excited about the Breakaway event being added to the 2022 RODEOHOUSTON roster? What does it mean for you and other breakaway ropers to final have access and recognized by these big rodeos and have a shot at these big purses?

SG: That's another big game changer. The bigger rodeos that get added, like Cheyenne, Pendleton, Houston, and all those, it's one step closer to our goal of being in every rodeo just like the guys being in the finals and in the performances. It’s just one step closer to achieving that. It's a game changer. There are lots of girls that made their living Breakaway Roping before it was a Pro Rodeo event. Now that it is, it gives us so many more opportunities for sponsorship money and all of the things that the guys get to have. Not to mention that we still get to have all these great jackpots. It'll really build the sport. It will give the young girls watching it and up and coming Breakaway Ropers something to aspire to.

RL: Even though Breakaway and Barrel Racing are women-leading sports, the rodeo industry and sport is very male dominated. What advice would you give any woman or girl at any level trying to find her place in the rodeo world?

SG: Take advice when you can, but you believe in yourself and do it. If you set your mind to it, don't take second for an option. Win or lose, it will be okay. Just give it your maximum effort.

RL: After your big win at Cheyenne Frontier Days you jumped from 19th to 3rd in the World Standings. How do you stay mentally focused knowing that one run or one rodeo could make or break your spot in the World Standings and a chance at a World Champion Title?

SG: When you go to the 19th to 3rd in that one run, it makes it easier. It’s a lot of work coming up from the standings. When I started this year, I was behind because I was still in college, and I was 150th for 3 weeks. It’s a battle to crawl up the standings and having one run where you just get to jump all those people really makes it easier. It is not easy, but it seems easier because it's the same as you've done a million times before, but that one run just pays a lot more money.

RL: What is the life professional cowgirl like?

SG: It’s funny because you have a lot of things to do but not really on the road. I always try to keep my life as scheduled as I can, which can be hard when you have to rope in the mornings and at night and then you drive all night and you’re nowhere for three days. My horses come first, so whatever they need they get. I try to keep them on the same schedule and exercise them because they're athletes too. With me, I try to work out every morning, eat right, and try to keep me healthy. There's always something to do; like when we were at Pendleton, my generator was broken down for most of the week. I had to play mechanic every off minute I had to try to get it working. It's just important to keep yourself busy.

RL: What does it mean to be a cowgirl? What attributes does a cowgirl have to have to be successful in the rodeo industry?

SG: Mental toughness. You can overcome a lot of things. It takes a pretty mentally tough person to be out here away from home, away from family and friends, not being able to practice, not being able to do what you want to do, not being able to have a nice and tight schedule, and having

to drive all of the time. It takes it takes a lot out of you. Understand exactly who you are gave me an advantage and is why I love rodeoing so much. One thing that I definitely underestimated about coming into this year was how mentally tough you to have to be every single day to make it out here.

RL: When did you know you wanted to make a career out of Breakaway Roping?

SG: I wanted to be a professional Breakaway Roper when I was really, really young. When I was in junior high, I quit playing other sports. I would go to school, come home, and saddle up horses that we roped. Then during the summer, we were going every weekend to some junior rodeo somewhere, and if we weren't, and I wasn't actively on a horse, we were working on the ranch. I've always been around horses, and horses have always been in my life. I grew up on a ranch in a ranching family. It's something that I've always done, and I fell in love with it. I’m driven enough because once it was something I decided I wanted to do, I was going to do it and figure out how to make it work.

RL: What is your favorite part about living the rodeo lifestyle? What is your least favorite?

SG: There are a lot of things that I love and there are things that I just tolerate. I'm not going to say I love driving, but I don't hate it either. It's pretty cool that you get to drive all over the US and see all of the different people, land, and stuff that we get to see. I love rodeo and it's in some ways easier just to be out here then to be driving back and forth trying to fit in a full-time work schedule when you're home for three days and then be gone for four days. There are challenges in everything. I just try to have fun and I try to take in all the sights and do all the things when we have extra time. I try to experience it all.

RL: Is there anything about Breakaway Roping or rodeo in general that you'd like people to know?

SG: The amount of women out here that are business women that run their businesses and have made a career out of Breakaway before it was a professional sport is amazing to me. They make these horses themselves, not some calf roper or some dad that bought one. They went and found a horse and they made them from start to finish. It's not just the big names in our sport, it's almost every single girl out here that has made her own horse. It's pretty cool to me that they do that.