rodeo queen 1
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8/11/2019 Rodeo Queen 1
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By Casey [email protected]
EDITORS NOTE: This is the rst part of a month-ly series following the work local rodeo queens putinto earning their titles.
Hair curled, makeup perfect, clothes starchedand pressed, crown straight, hat tight and al-ways on, boots and buckle polished, chaps
clean, legs covered, no gum, no sunglasses, stay pos-itive and smile.
Those are just a few of the things that rodeo queens
and princesses must remember when they are makingpublic appearances during their reign.
Hailey Kelso, Miss War Bonnet Roundup Prin-cess for 2013, is one such princess this year. She wascrowned princess in August and said she loves repre-senting the War Bonnet title.
At her competitions, Kelso makes her horsemanshipskills and speeches appear to come with awless ease.But what many onlookers dont understand is that be-hind the smile and rodeo queen wave, are countlesshours of work, study and practice.
Kelso is a 15-year-old sophomore at Shelley HighSchool and did her rst competition when she was 11.
Last week, Kelso participated in a special memori-al rodeo called Cowboys and Angels Keely LanceScholarship Memorial in honor of the late Rodeo QueenKeely Lance who died in a car accident last year. The ro-
deo took place in Rigby and was an effort to raise moneyfor education scholarships as well as some of the organi-zations that Keely Lance stood for during her life.
Each girl must give a speech in front of judges, andthen demonstrate their horsemanship skills by completing
a pattern in the arena. Each girl must complete the samepattern that is assigned to their age group. The difcultyof the patterns goes up with the age of the competitors.
One of the most challenging aspects of horseman-ship is to change leads. This means every time a rid-er switches the direction she is going, she must guideher horse to switch legs so the inside leg lands rstthroughout the duration of the turn.
Tasha Finn, rodeo organizer, said 21 girls competedin the queen contest this year. She also said that theKeely Lance contest is a little different than most.
Holding the Keely Lance title is not as intense as it
is for other titles. Winners may represent the rodeo ifthey choose to, but they are not required to do so.
We want them to have a good time and a good ex-perience queening, said Finn. We want it to be morelaid back, and not as high stress as other queen con-tests.
Kelso said the rodeo was great practice for her. Shewent up against one other competitor for the queen ti-tle, who was Lances best friend and about ve yearsolder than Kelso.
Even though her competitor is above the age limitfor the queen title for this particular rodeo, Kelso gaveher permission to let her opponent compete.
I think it was a good thing [that she won], becauseshe was Keelys best friend, said Kelso. How couldI not let her compete? That wasnt really the point any-way. I got great practice and I feel good knowing the
money I spent to participate went to a great cause andscholarships for people as well.
Kelso is currently practicing for the Miss Rodeo Ida-ho title that she will be competing for next year. Theevent will take place in Nampa.
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Casey Archibald/[email protected]
Hailey Kelso, 2013 Miss War Bonnet Roundup Princess,
poses for a picture at the Cowboys and Angels Keely
Lance Scholarship Memorial.
Being a rodeo queen morethan just wearing a crown
Sponsored by Portneuf Medical Center