story by Gigi Robey
From critiquing, to teaching, to preparing, Elizabeth Broussard uses her videos to better herself. She rewatches them to prepare mentally. After reading “Mind Gym: An Athlete’s Guide to Inner Excellence” by Gary Mack, a book for athletes to learn to better believe in themselves, she now believes mental preparation is equally as important as physical preparation. “The two have to be 50/50” says the 17-year-old. Estherwood, Louisiana is home to her, her 4 older siblings, and her 6 nieces and nephews. She says, “Being the baby has its perks, I’m very spoiled since I’m the only one living in the house. And I love being an aunt, they live next door, so I’m an aunt all the time.” Her father competed in rodeo as a teenager, however, the family didn’t really start until her oldest brother got the family started when he was a junior in high school and the rest followed in his footsteps. She competes in breakaway, pole bending, and barrel racing; barrels is her favorite. She is more competitive in it and has had more success, such as being reserve campion in LHSRA this past year. She has worked hard to get with her horse, Brand Me Lucky, he’s very powerful and hard to get past barrels, but once they started to click they started to win. She is homeschooled and spends a lot of time with family traveling. Over the summer they went to Shawnee, OK for the IFYR, National High School Rodeo Finals, and Minn.to visit her older brother. Her favorite thing about rodeo is being able to compete with friends and still stay close, “In any other sport you wouldn’t get along with your competition, but we still encourage one another.” Elizabeth stated. She plans on competing in college rodeos, but is undecided on what school, and hopes to pro rodeo. Before the rodeo she exercises her horses and uses the Equi-Resp machine on them. Right before she runs she likes to tell herself to run like she is at the American, like she is running for one million dollars, this pumps her up for her run. She is looking forward to the season starting back with the first rodeo being at Ruston, which is her favorite rodeo, her horses always seem to work better there. Her goal for the year is to stay consistent and win state for her senior year, she would also like to make the American Semi-finals. She says that the LHSRA is a very close group, she knew everyone on the national’s team when they went, every night at Nationals they got together and cooked, she likes how close the association is. She normally hauls with her dad or sister in law, Alishea. Alishea has helped her a lot with rodeos, along with Mallory Champagne. Since she wants to compete pro rodeos one day, she wants to go watch all 10 rounds of the NFR and talk with the pros about the trails it takes to get to that level and how to overcome them. She looks up to Jackie Ganter, because of all the accomplishments she has had as a rookie. “I know rodeos comes with trails and hardships, so to the people on top, how do you get through it?” Elizabeth’s main focus is rodeo from practice to competing, she gave up all sports to focus on rodeo, she says “rodeo requires a lot of dedication.”
