(gentle calm music) (gentle calm music continues) - We'll ride rain or shine.

The only time we've ever had rodeos canceled or postponed is lightning hitting down in the arena or a tornado, that is about it.

It is a rain and shine sport.

(gentle calm music) I ain't gonna melt anyway.

I ain't sweet enough.

(laughs) I ain't sweet enough, ♪ Such a long way from home ♪ Far away from the place I belong ♪ ♪ And I ain't got nobody ♪ But one thing I still carry ♪ The sweet scent of your memory, your memory ♪ - I got into breakaway roping when I was probably about nine, 10 years old.

It started being offered in 4-H and we started roping all the time at home.

It wasn't until later in life that I really started enjoying roping.

When I was a kid my dad was, is still a rancher and it was more of a job than it was fun.

But now it's become very, very fun.

I work full time.

I'm a bookkeeper and do everything on the farm too.

So this is what I get to do on the side.

(gentle calm music) So this is my roping can.

This is where all my ropes go.

Unique, my friend Casey painted it for me.

So I travel with my son and my boyfriend.

He is also a team roper, but we do this as a family deal.

Where the bull riding and the saddle broncs and the barebacks, they get to just pretty much take their gear and go onto the next rodeo, where we gotta pack up a whole rig.

And we pretty much live out of our trailer the whole weekend we're gone.

And it might start on a Thursday and we'll get home Sunday night.

We put on a lot of miles, a lot of late night miles.

(upbeat music) (dramatic lively music) What breakaway calf roping consists of is that it is a girl's event.

Instead of having to get off and tie, we just have to rope the calf and our rope is tied to our saddle horn with a piece of string and we have a flag on the end of our rope.

When we rope the calf clean around the neck and it breaks away, that is our time.

I've competed at different events down in Las Vegas.

I've been to the Rope for the Crown twice.

I've been down there.

I mean I can rope with the big dogs.

(dramatic lively music) It's kind of a cool feeling, coming from Minnesota, the first time I went down to Vegas it was pretty sweet 'cause I am the only one from Minnesota and everybody else is from Texas, Oklahoma.

They get to rope year round and I'm in Minnesota where snow flies usually in October and doesn't leave until April, but (laughs).

(dramatic lively music) - [Event Announcer] Katie Bell from Wabasso, Minnesota.

(lively music) (event announcer speaking faintly) (dramatic lively music) We gotta take our own horses with us 'cause they're our teammate.

I actually have two of them.

Cheddar in the background here.

He is my go-to.

He's my old trusty and I have a young one, Reno.

He is at home, but he is starting to really step up to the plate, which is pretty awesome to have two horses to take, so that I can give one a break.

A lot of my friends go, "Oh, where's Cheddar?"

If I don't bring him people go, "What did you do with Cheddar?"

I'm like, "Ah, he's at home.

I'm just taking the young one."

"Oh, we thought something happen to Cheddar."

"No, no, Cheddar got a break."

(laughs) (gentle calm music) - [Interviewer] Do you think you're gonna win tonight?

- I'm gonna go and have fun and do the best I can do.

Would I like to win?

Definitely, that's icing on the cake, but there's a lot of variables.

(gentle reflective music) - [Event Announcer] Let's go right here, it's Katie Bell.

(people shouting) (gentle tense music) - [Event Announcer] Ah, man.

Yeah, (speaking faintly).

(gentle solemn music) - Ah, no, I'll have a no time.

There was a couple things that went wrong in my run.

It happens.

It's been raining, it's muddy out.

- Good.

- What do you think, Cheddar?

He's like, I did my part, I'm chowing.

(chuckles) (event announcer speaking faintly) (gentle reflective music) I was told by a good friend of mine.

He said, "Once that calf leaves the arena, that run is done and over and you go on to the next one."

- Kind of how life goes.

What's done and over, that's the past.

Let it go and bright future ahead.

(gentle reflective music) My and dad worked for a couple ranchers and my mom and dad were building their own herd and we had just bought a place of our own.

My mom and dad had bought a place of their own finally.

And my mom was killed in a car accident when I was nine.

So about the same age as my son.

And I raised my little sister for a couple years and then my dad remarried and she had two kids.

So those were my stepbrother and stepsister and they had a boy together, which was my half-brother.

And they divorced when I was like a junior, sophomore in high school.

I started school, got really, really sick with mono and decided I was going to pay off my doctor bills, so I went and started working instead of going back to school and I've worked ever since.

(gentle reflective music) I also support some friends that were killed last year.

I actually wear River's bands on my wrist everywhere I go.

He was 14.

He was a kid that had a big, big, big influence on my life when he was a kid, like little, little like my son's age.

(gentle reflective music) I've gotten through a lot of hard times with my horses, my horses and my dogs.

They've brought me through a lot of things.

(event announcer speaking faintly) (hooves plodding) (gentle reflective music) So.

You know, I've mentored a lot of kids, I guess, especially in the last few years.

Mallory's, actually, one of them.

She's our neighbor kid.

She just qualified to go down to Nationals, high school Nationals in the breakaway.

(gentle inspiring music) It's a family affair.

Ain't it, bud?

- Yeah, for the most part.

- (laughs) I do hope to pass the love of rodeo down to my son, but I want it to be his choice.

I don't want him forced into it.

He knows the ropes of it pretty well already, so.

- [Son] Good luck, mom.

You're gonna need it.

Looks like a frickin' bomb went off of water.

(gentle upbeat music) - Yep, gonna need the boots.

(dramatic upbeat music) It's taken me up and down in life.

It's also been very, very rewarding.

I have met a lot of people, good people throughout the United States and it's very rewarding.

To be able to get to do this as a hobby, there's no other one out there like it.

(gentle upbeat music) (dramatic lively music) (dramatic lively music continues) - [Announcer] "Postcards" is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the Citizens of Minnesota.

Additional support provided by: Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies; Mark and Margaret Yackel-Juleen on behalf of Shalom Hill Farms, a retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Wyndham, Minnesota, on the web at shalomhillfarm.org; Alexandria, Minnesota a year-round destination with hundreds of lakes, trails and attractions for memorable vacations and events.

More information at explorealex.com.

A better future starts now.

West Central Initiative empowers communities with resources, funding and support for a thriving region, more at wcif.org.

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