The Rodeo Queens

With four rodeos in Summit County between July and August, every summer-time soul in these mountains and valleys is just a stone’s throw away from discovering what all the horsing around is about.

A rodeo is a mixture of local civic pride, arena dust and fireworks. It’s a Saturday night of clowns, cowboys and rodeo queens, all whirling at breakneck speed under the lights. The local rodeo celebrates the toughness and determination that allows rural families to make it in the day-to-day risky business of ranching. It showcases the skillful work our neighbors do and the mutual dependence between them and the animals they keep, care for, and earn a part of their living by. The rodeo kicks these earthy realities up into thunderously exciting entertainment. So while the action is real, and a cowboy’s bones sometimes get broken, the rodeo is also a dusty, rhinestone-covered canvas that we in the stands can safely feel the thrill of.

I went to my first rodeo soon after arriving in Summit County. Of course I expected to see cowboys and barrel racers. I did not expect to see young women starting the show by hurtling themselves on galloping horses around the arena like lightning decked out for a dance. “Oh my gosh,” I thought, as the first queen flew in wearing chartreuse and pink, “someone’s gonna get killed.” But none of the queens or anyone else did. They simply rode all ablaze in their cowgirl bling, waving and smiling as warmly as July’s sun.
The rodeo queen’s opening ride is her daredevil way of pumping up the crowd — her way of giving everyone a great big rodeo welcome. Yet as it turns out, there is more to any rodeo queen than her wild, welcoming ride.

I wanted to know just how a gal from Kamas or Coalville got to be queen of the rodeo. The queen of the rodeo is selected annually through a head-to-head competition. The showdown is held at the local rodeo queen pageant. The pageant season begins in late spring in Summit County. During the pageant, judges score the young women on their overall poise and confidence, on the competence of their public speaking, and the grace they display while modeling. They also judge the gals on their knowledge of rodeo and their skill at horsemanship. A panel of impartial experts from outside the local area does the judging so that any local bias is kept to a minimum.

When you go to the rodeo this summer, you’re bound to meet welcoming and generous people. You’ll meet whole families with generations of involvement in rodeo, and those with next to none, all of whom have come out to support their would-be queen. The “old hands” share support, encouragement, and lunch with families who are brand new to the royalty routine. You’ll see their daughters competing against, and yet supporting each other, as they move through the day’s nerve-fraying contest.

Of course, the contestants are all incredibly bright and outgoing; models of high achievement, poise, and good sportsmanship. Nearly all the contestants I talked to said they compete because they love rodeo and because they understand how preparing for queen competitions can help them succeed in other areas of their lives. Like all the other hands at the rodeo, a rodeo queen gets to the top of her game by smarts, grit and determination, and years of training, too. So, when the pageant’s over, you’ll know that the queen’s job takes more than rhinestones and a winning smile … although those things don’t hurt her along the way.

Mark Nelson holds graduate degrees from UMass-Amherst and UC Berkeley. Mark lives in Utah and is a freelance photographer, writer, and licensed master plumber.