God is great.  This is a truth to keep in mind and all times, and especially while reading this review of Walk. Ride. Rodeo.(2019).  After watching it, I set out for Rekindle, a night of Mass and Adoration held at the House of Prayer in Clearwater, Florida.  Though I was slightly delayed in my departure, I felt like I had enough time to get there and set up for the evening, me being the unofficial handler of the projector for these events.  A week before I had said that I would not be present because I had read the calendar incorrectly and thought September’s first Friday (which is when we have Rekindle) was going to be during a week I am on vacation.  This happy mistake meant that I could pleasantly surprise my friends with my presence, something I enjoy doing.  Then I hit some awful traffic on the way to the House of Prayer, and I had to work against the rising urge to turn around and head for home.  After all, I had this to write.  Instead, I fought against that feeling and arrived ten minutes late.  I am so thankful I stayed the course because not only do I always get something out of these nights, but I also gained some inspiration for what follows.

Walk. Ride. Rodeo. is a somewhat deceptive title, at least at the beginning.  We meet rising female rodeo star Amberley Snyder (Spencer Locke) as she is competing in her event, called barrel racing.  Basically, you are trying to see how fast you can get a horse to gallop around a set of three steel drums without knocking them over.  Though she wins, she is a tenth of a second off her personal best, and this brings her frustration, which she vents to her mother, Tina Snyder (Missi Pyle).  Tina is the supportive one, while her dad, former Major League Baseball player Cory Snyder (Bailey Chase), is the parent from whom she in inherits her competitiveness.  Not long after getting home, we learn that Amberley has a busy time ahead of her.  In addition to continuing her riding career, she also plans on going to college.  During the summer before school, she is going to work in Denver to be around the sport some more.  Tina is worried about her nineteen-year-old daughter traveling across the country alone, but Amberley’s strong will wins the day.  As such, she loads up her trusty pick-up and gets on the road.  Unfortunately, while driving through Wyoming’s vast wilderness, she contrives to flip her vehicle, throwing her from it.  Though she retains consciousness throughout the whole process, this is Wyoming. Remarkably, another car soon passes by, sees her predicament, and calls for emergency personnel.  Amberley’s first call is to Cory, who is away from the home as a minor league baseball coach, and it is he that informs Tina.  They get to their daughter not long after her hospital stay has begun, and in time to be given the news that Amberley has suffered severe spinal cord trauma and will be paralyzed for the rest of her life.  Tina tries to be as positive as possible, but all Amberley can think is that this is the end of her rodeo career, and that she will no longer be able to do what she loves.  She carries this bitterness with her as she is transported to a rehabilitation center in her home state of Utah, where they can do the therapy they attempt with her.  In her struggles with doing something so basic as to get herself upright or overcoming a slight incline while in her wheelchair, her first feeling is usually defeat, followed by a desire to overcome the obstacle.  Each step there is Tina encouraging Amberley to keep going.  Eventually, she gets to go home, though she little imagines that she will ever be able to once more get back onto a horse.  Indeed, the first time she makes her way out to the paddock to see her prized thoroughbred Power, her chair gets stuck and she soon topples over waving for help.  Though she takes this as yet another setback, Tina sees it part of her daughter’s healing process to be around the animals she loves.  The real breakthrough is when Cory comes home with a new car for Amberley equipped to be operated by somebody who does not have the use of their legs.  When she buckles her seatbelt, it gives her the inspiration to try a similar device on a saddle.  Now that she has a way of staying mounted, she intends to slowly ease her way back into riding.  It is given a jolt when a famous reporter (Barbara Alyn Woods) comes to ask Amberley about her incredible story.  She realizes she must overcome any lingering trepidation and get back into the saddle in earnest.  Doing so brings back her main goal, and that is to compete in The American Rodeo in her favorite event.  To prepare, she does the only thing she knows how to do: to push her body to the point of exhaustion.  In her case, this means injury, leading to ulcerative infections on her backside that are life-threatening.  Once more, she feels like everything is transpiring against her, particularly when the doctor tells her that she must stop riding for a few weeks.  This puts her efforts towards securing a bid in the American at risk.  As always, she bounces back, and begins to get mail from other people around the country in similar circumstances who have heard of her story and have been inspired to keep going.  This seems to become her new purpose, though she does get the long-anticipated call to take part in the American.  In it, she sets a barrel racer record.  It is basically here that the film ends, with it showing some stock footage of the real Amberley Snyder, who had served as her own stunt person.

God is great and Walk. Ride. Rodeo. proves it.  My experience on the way to Rekindle provides further Confirmation.  Had Amberley given up, she would have never attained her goal, which is the source of the title.  Though she may never walk again, those three words became a mantra for her.  For me, my uplifting came from today’s Gospel.  It is the parable of the wise virgins as told in Matthew 25:1-13.  The expected bridegroom has been delayed, and those who had stored up enough lamp oil to keep watch for whenever the guy returned.  Given the hour, and the lack of information, it could have been at any time.  The priest giving the homily tonight reinforced the lesson of this parable, and that is preparedness.  If you are ready for whatever (or whenever) God brings you, you will see the Glory of it and how it is designed to help you grow in holiness.  At a particularly low moment for Amberley, Tina reminds her daughter of how blessings are always all around us, they are just sometimes hard to see.  This describes Amberley quite well.  The blessing she could not see is the fans sending their support.  Her problem is that, despite her parents and others being around, she feels alone in facing her issues.  Once she realizes that it was about something bigger than herself, she is prepared for the arrival of the bridegroom, or in this case, the next chapter of her life.  To use the logic movie would apply about this subject, we do not control what God brings us, but we can control how we react to it.  We cannot be prepared for every situation, but with God we can react to anything with positive growth.  Though she has her moments of doubts, which is understandable, Amberley is a testament to this fact.

To go along with the ultimate lesson in Walk. Ride. Rodeo., there is an exchange between Amberley and Tina that summarizes well God’s working in our life, mysterious though it may seem at times.  In talking about this subject, Amberley says that God wanted her to be crippled.  Tina responds by reminding her that God wants what is best for her. That is true for all us, and watching any movie that can remind you of this fact is a good thing.