WEBVTT

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(gentle guitar music)

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^- [Lauren] When most airmen are young

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^they want new toys to play with.

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^However, with Senior Airman Mari Sylvester,

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she wasn't begging for the next best thing,

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she was begging for a horse.

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Even through joining the military and starting a family

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she still keeps her childhood dream alive.

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^- Barrel racing is something that I really fought for,

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I guess, since my family isn't horse people.

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But it was something I was always kind of

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doing on my own and so it's something I really

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had to be self-motivated about.

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And so when I told my family I'm joining the military

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they right away was like oh,

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so you're getting out of horses?

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And when I told them no, I'm actually planning on

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bringing my horses with me, they were all really shocked.

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And then when I actually was able to make that happen,

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it just felt really good.

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It's the lifestyle.

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It really is just all about that lifestyle

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and going as fast as you can

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and having to fully trust a 1200 pound animal with your life

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going top speed.

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It's just such a good feeling

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that all those hours and hours of practicing in the arena

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and then you go in there and you run your heart out.

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- [Trainer] Push, push, push, push, that's it!

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- There's a lot of ups and downs,

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like an emotional roller coaster most of the time

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'cause you're not always gonna go in there

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and have the fastest time.

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You're not always gonna go in there and win.

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But when you do it just feels so good

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to know that it was just you and your horse out there

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just going as fast as you can.

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- [Trainer] Sit down, look, go on!

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- A lot of times when you're competing

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you're going for money,

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so sometimes you put way too much pressure on yourself,

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way too much pressure on your horse

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and you lose sight of this is just an animal

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and they love you.

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They just want to please you.

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They don't know they're running for money.

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They're running because you asked them to.

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So that would be one of the biggest challenges

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to wrap your head around is just to relax, enjoy the ride.

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A lot of times I just think well, maybe I'll just

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stop barrel racing and just keep her and go trail riding.

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But to me she's got so much talent

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and I am such an adrenaline junkie, it just works.

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We enjoy it, and I think until we stop enjoying it

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we're gonna keep doing it.

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(music fades)