Lessons learned in rodeo help dentist succeed in life

Imagine, putting in a full day of school, followed by volleyball or basketball practice, then loading up a trailer and driving 80 miles.

That was Sydney Grint’s schedule through much of her time at Grand Island Senior High. After classes and practices for other sports, she would hook up and travel an hour and a half to Broken Bow so she could work on her roping.

“I failed a lot when I was first learning,” said Grint, who competed in breakaway roping and barrel racing in high school. “It is so gratifying once you finally figure it out but very humbling to know that you can always get better.”

When she was focusing on how to rope the dummy, she probably didn’t see where she’d be several years later.

Locked in a classroom eight hours a day in the basement of the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Dentistry. Surrounded by a group of extremely gifted students. Then going home to study for another five hours.

Looking back on that first year of dental school, she said, “You really have to look inside yourself and say, ‘Is this really what I want, and am I really meant to be here?’”

That’s when she fell back on the determination and perseverance she learned in high school rodeo.

“I had to remind myself, people have survived worse things,” Grint said. “I can survive this.

“If this is what I want to do, I have to keep going.”

Unlike most competitors, Grint wasn’t born into a rodeo family. Her mother grew up on a dairy farm in North Dakota and her father in Grand Island.

“I was always that girl who loved horses but didn’t grow up on a ranch, and no one in my family had horses,” Grint said, and after much pleading, her parents bought her one.

Outlaw — a retired movie horse who had appeared in “The Patriot” and “Wooly Boys” — was too old to ride, but Grint eventually learned to ride and show horses in 4-H.

“No one in Grand Island really rodeoed,” she said.

That changed when Grint was a freshman in high school and dated a boy who was a cutter. That was her first exposure to rodeo.

“I liked the competitive nature and pace,” she said.

She joined the Nebraska High School Rodeo Association that year. Her high school career took her everywhere from Mitchell, Harrison and Crawford to O’Neill and Nelson.

“That opened up a lot of things, especially to a naïve high school kid, about my home state of Nebraska.”

It also taught her a lot about people. Rodeo people are humble and kind, she said.

“They’re happy to be here and take a lot of pride in the state of Nebraska.” 

Because she wasn’t from a rodeo family, she had a steeper learning curve than most.

“It was the maiden voyage,” Grint said. “It forced me to expand my bubble.”

Grint found plenty of friends in rodeo who were willing to help a novice along.

“Rodeo taught me how to fail and that it’s not the end of the world,” Grint said. “You have no choice but to persevere. Chasing goals takes work, and a lesson learned is a lesson earned. If you work harder, it will get better.”

Those lessons and her rodeo friends were a resource to her during that grueling first year of dental school, and she did persevere.

Grint earned her DDS from the UNMC College of Dentistry in May 2023 and now owns Radiant Modern Dentistry in Grand Island.

The people skills she learned in rodeo help her relate to patients. Rodeo also strengthens the bond between Grint and her husband, Nolan, a fifth-grade teacher at Shoemaker Elementary who also trains rope horses.

“That ended up being something we love to do together,” she said.

After a hard day’s work, they love nothing better than to grab their good geldings and rope a few steers.

“It’s a good way to stay connected and get outside,” Grint said. On the weekends, you’ll likely find the couple at a jackpot roping.

What would she tell a young person thinking of trying their hand at rodeo?

“It’ll be hard,” she said, “but it’ll be worth it for the friendships you make and the lessons you learn.”