The Makings of a True Cowboy

Story and photos by Jared Young

For the past three summers, Northeast Missouri has been a place for those who love God and horses to come together and celebrate by means of rodeo.

The Chariton Hills Chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Cowboys hosts the rodeo bible camp in Unionville, Mo. each summer. This is the third year of its existence. Children 10 to 16 years of age attended, partaking in rodeo events, and a journey in faith.

Tom Rowland, FCC member and camp volunteer, said he looks forward to this and other rodeo bible camps throughout the year.

“It’s the equivalent of Christmas and New Years for us here at the FCC,” Rowland said. “We anticipate this all year long, and whenever we get to this, you can’t hardly get to sleep the night before because you’re so excited.”

At the beginning of each camp, the kids are stripped of cell phones, iPods, and anything of that nature. The three and a half days of the camp are very structured also. They start in the mornings with breakfast, followed by a personal devotions time between the campers and their group leaders. Everyone then goes to work, practicing for their rodeo events. Lunch is served, followed by chapel service. Campers go back to work until dinner, followed by a second chapel service, and finally, a second personal devotions time. 

Two-year camp attendee Madison Bibson said she has had a lot of fun at the camp, especially practicing barrel racing on her horse, Painter

“You do different drills in the arena to try and exercise your horse,” Bibson said. “You have to clean them up and teach them what they have to do, and you have to practice going into the arena.”

Camp missionary Linda Scholtz is a professional trick riding instructor. She had a mixture of first-year trick riding students, along with some more experienced trick riders. She said helping the kids was an enjoyable experience.

“We’ve taught them the basics of learning a trick riding saddle, spinning around in it, [and] standing on top of it,” Scholtz said. “It’s like ice skating or gymnastics on a thirty mile-an-hour balance beam.”

Professional trick riding instructor Lori Orman also helped to teach the campers the basics of trick riding. She said unlike some of the other events at the camp, trick riding, because of dangerous maneuvers, cannot be taken home and practiced by the campers. Therefore, she and Scholtz teach things that go beyond trick riding.

“We add a lot of skills that they can take home, such as diligence, devotion, focusing and exercise,” Orman said.

“Trick riding is a lot about your relationship with God,” 

Orman said. “There are so many factors that can easily go wrong. You can be injured. You can be killed. You have to really have a huge relationship with God, and have a strong mind and a strong body to go with it.”

Living as a good Christian goes beyond the arena and events at the bible camp. Scholtz said campers act in responsible and respective manners before, during, and after each work day or event.

“We encourage them to live out their Christian walk in helping each other,” Scholtz said. “We want them to be good stewards of their equipment and their horses.”

On the day of the rodeo, campers prepare for the events they have practiced for the past three days. By this point, all kids are capable of saddling their horses by themselves. They make all final preparations, clean up after themselves, and take their horses to the arena to begin.

Parents and spectators watch from their seats as their children put on a full-scale rodeo. Bull, steer, and bareback riding accompany trick riding, goat roping, team roping, barrel racing, trick roping and horsemanship.

“The whole thing’s been great,” Sevits said. “Getting to be a part of it is like a life dream. It’s great to see these kids.”

Sevits got involved with the FCC and rodeo bible camps by attending several of them as a kid.

“I went to the first one in Olathe, Kansas when I was fifteen years old as a trick rider,” Sevits said. “I attended the camps until I was 18. Then I started teaching trick riding and being a team leader. A few years ago we got hooked up with some other people in this area and decided to put on our own rodeo bible camp.”

The bible camp brings in kids and families from many different religious backgrounds. Chariton Hills Chapter President Jason Rouse said the community highly supports what the FCC and the Chariton Hills Rodeo Bible Camp are trying to accomplish.

“This has superseded boundaries of faith and denominations,” Rouse said. “Everybody has come together… the whole community, regardless of what [they] believe, has stepped up to support us.”

Jared Young is a freelancer from Bosworth, Mo.

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