Hey all. 

Not out of school yet, but I'm thinking about going pro once I graduate university. Is it possible to have a career and rodeo at the same time? How to you balance it? 

Thanks in advance, I appreciate it. :

You can circuit rodeo and have a full time job. There are a lot of people that do that. I have always had a full time job when I was rodeoing (had to pay for it somehow!).This year rodeoing is going to cost a LOT more than normal.

You cannot expect to make the NFR and have a job unless you have that unicorn that wins all the big ones so that you can stay close to home or you have a phenomenal remote job).

I'd think it would be pretty hard unless you're staying close to home. If you're wanting to make nfr level you'll be on the road almost 24/7. Most got out on a 6-8 week run & then come home for 1-2 weeks and then go back out on the next run. A few of the girls have multiple rigs and drivers, so they can just fly out to meet them. And they have to keep going hard bc there's very little money to be made after expenses. I know Emily Beisel works at a dental office, but it's not full time, its a very flexible gig she's got. I would say unless your full time job can go with you on the road, like a remote type job, it would be next to impossible. Unless you do like stated above and stay within a circuit 

I don't know how people have a full time job and keep their horses conditioned enough to go to local shows, never mind rodeo. I've always been lucky in that I work from home so my schedule is pretty flexible but it's still hard. But people do it. I don't think they do ANYTHING else. I think that's how they do it. 

I'm a full time high school teacher and also rodeo fairly hard at the amatuer level, and this year I'm trying to go to some circuit rodeos too. I pretty much come home from school and change into barn clothes then am outside for at least 3 hours of the evening. I've been lucky in the past to have a couple of older finished horses who just needed exercised so I would ride one and pony the other most days, and ride the ponied horse a couple times a week so each horse got a little bit of solo workout time. Now I'm seasoning a 6 year old and I have my 18 year old who seems destined to be a backup forever plus a teenage client horse that I'm tuning up to possibly use at some rodeos. 

I work really hard during spring break to get my horses in halfway decent shape so I'm not starting from scratch in May when the rodeos are starting up, and it makes my life easier if I'm just KEEPING them legged up instead of bringing them back from a winter vacation. Then of course my schedule is about to become much more wide open when the school year ends this week. I will probably go to some weeknight rodeos alone or have a family member jump in with me to help with our toddler, and my husband will come home from work and feed the other horses without me. 

My husband and I have a total of 9 horses to run and another colt to ride, so we stay pretty busy on top of our full-time jobs, but it is possible to have horses in running shape even while you have a full-time job. With as many as we have, riding & ponying is where it's at. 

Lynn McKenzie did it and won the world. She never went more than 200 miles from home so she and Murray could drive home and be at work the next day. She also won everywhere she went.