For this avid horsewoman, raising two daughters in the ranching and rodeo lifestyles has been quite an adjustment, but also a rewarding experience.
Mindy Goemmer spent most of her childhood in Silt, Colorado, where her father trained and showed halter and performance horses. She showed in English and Western classes on the Rocky Mountain Quarter Horse Association circuit until she was 16 and started barrel racing. Horses and rodeo were a priority — until she became a mother and ranch wife. Now 43, she still competed in barrel racing, steer stopping, roping, team branding and bridle-horse classes. However, training good horses for her two teenaged daughters, Dally and Riata, hauling them to junior rodeos, and helping her husband, Shawn, run their cattle operation outside of Battle Mountain, Nevada, is her focus.
Showing horses made a big difference in my horsemanship. I learned more about a horse and how to control its entire body.
Mom had a really good barrel horse names Cisco, and he was the cutest horse I’ve ever ridden. He was a stocky little sorrel horse with so much personality, strength and speed. When I’d eat an apple, his trick was to reach up and take a bite, he loved drinking 7-Up. My parents sold him at the National Western Stock Show, and it was the saddest day of my life.
My senior year of high school, we moved to Sonoita, Arizona, where my dad got a job managing a ranch. I always rode horses, but I didn’t help Dad much with ranching. That was his job, and he had a lot of hired help. I found out it’s totally different when you’re a family operated business. Our kids definitely have to help out.
Shawn said he wasn’t going to marry before he was 30, would never marry a barrel racer or have daughter. We got married when I was 24 and he was 28, I barrel raced and we had two daughters. I swore I’d never live in a mobile home, and I’ve lived in many.
After I had my youngest daughter, Riata, I started hauling four horses and a double stroller. I always arrived at the arena early and scouted out a good place to park the stroller near the warm-up pen or arena.
“I like the peace of being on the ranch, but when it’s time to go I’m ready for the rush of rodeoing.”
We ran cattle for the Goemmer family ranch in La Veta, Colorado, and then moved to Seligman, Arizona. In 2005, Shawn got a ranch job in Battle Mountain, Nevada. When we leased the Buffalo Valley Ranch on 2007, we trailered our bulls and small pairs. Then we gathered the remaining cattle and drove all 800 head underneath the Interstate overpass and 100 miles to the ranch. Everyone thought we were crazy for having an old-fashioned cattle drive.
Our family rodeos from March to November. Then we start weaning calves and really have to go to work.
I hate it when someone says, “Oh, he’s a barrel horse.” We barrel race on every horse in our pasture. We also rope horses on them at the Jordan Valley Big Loop, compete in team brandings and show them in bridle-horse classes at the Elko County Fair. There’s no reason you can’t do all of these things on a horse.
My friends ask why I give my good barrel horses to my kids. It makes me feel good to see the girls do well. I can’t make new horses for the girls to rodeo on if I ride only the trained ones.
I was so into my horses my entire life that everyone thought I’d be a terrible mother. I’d never even held a baby. But when I had my kids, my mothering instincts kicked in.
We’ve always had a family operation, so if we were short-handed, Shawn and I would each have to pack a kid in the saddle with us when they were little. Soon, we were leading both girls on their own horses. They’ve spent miles in the saddle, and that’s what makes them such good riders.
A strict schedule doesn’t fit into our lifestyle. We have work that has to be done on the ranch, so we homeschool the girls and they have to fit their schoolwork in at night or around other things.
I’m not a girly girl. I do have [artificial] nails and wear lipstick, but I don’t wear makeup or do my hair every day.
There are many women in ranching, but it really is a man’s world. I always figured if a man could do it, then I could do it, too.
I want to raise my daughters in a way they don’t feel they have to depend on a man. I believe that’s the biggest injustice you can do to a girl.
We’re not really buckaroos or cowpunchers — we’re a little bit of both. When we came to Nevada, people said, “You don’t tie on hard and fast.” We have, but we have also worked with long ropes and slick horns.
My philosophy of training horses and raising kids is, if I can’t look myself in the mirror the next day and be okay with it, then I better not do it.
This article was originally published in the June 2013 issue of Western Horseman.
