Page 8 - 2017 December Voices

the screen printing business my parents owned. had the title in the back of my mind since my
Soon after she joined Oregon City Toastmasters. princess year on the Canby Court in 2014.
Once I graduated and moved back to Oregon My graduation gift to myself was a then two
City, I joined the same Toastmasters club to help -year-old quarter horse named Dually. My first
prepare myself for the interview and speech horse, Jazz, passed away in the summer of 2015
portions of the Miss Rodeo Oregon Pageant. in her pasture at our home in Redland. She lived
The most important skill I learned from the a healthy and happy life to the ripe old age of 26,
and wasn’t retired from riding until she was
24. Jazz even helped me win my princess title
when she was 23, but was retired from rodeo
because the traveling was too hard on her.
Dually had a good and easy start to his
riding career, but more importantly had the
calm work ethic that a rodeo horse needs to
have. I took riding lessons with him from his
previous owner, who is an internationally
renowned colt starter, and then with a highly
recommended trainer in Molalla.
I would ride with her once a week, and
she would give me “homework” exercises to
work with Dually on during the rest of the
week. I also took Dually to different riding
events and to the St. Paul Rodeo to get him
used to all the sights and sounds that he might
encounter. Thankfully with Dually’s laid back
attitude, he handled the events and rodeos
better than most older horses did.
Along with improving my riding skills,
I also had to study rodeo history, rodeo
terminology, equine science, and current
events. My typical day in the months before
pageant consisted of: designing my pageant
wardrobe, riding Dually, going to my job as
a server, and then studying at night. Along
with horsemanship and knowledge, there
club was to slow down and mentally prepare my were appearance and photogenic categories to
answers before speaking. I am also much more be won at the pageant, so I designed and bought
aware of when I or other people use “uhms” or my wardrobe completely on my own.
“ahs” to fill the air, and use them less often than I The pageant itself was a four-day competition
used to. The Oregon City club meets at 6:30am. held during the Clackamas County Fair and
I realized that if I could speak cohesively that Canby Rodeo in August. Two other contestants
early in the morning, then I could certainly do and I said goodbye to our parents and gave up
so during the day after I actually woke up. I am our phones at orientation for the first day of
still a member of the club, but with my work pageant. From then until the end of judging, we
schedule and planning my coronation, sleep could not talk to our families or the rest of the
usually trumps the meetings. I plan to return to world. We had chaperones that shuttled us to
meetings regularly after my coronation, which and from each event, three out-of-state judges,
will be held in Canby on January 20th. and we stayed in a hotel. The first day consisted
What process did you go through to of orientation, move in, a written knowledge
become Miss Rodeo Oregon? test, and then autographs and grand entry at

My journey to become Miss Rodeo Oregon the rodeo.
officially began after I graduated from Oregon Our second day of pageant was Personality
State University in June of 2016, however I always Interview Day, where the judges could ask us

8 VOLUME 4 ISSUE 6 DECEMBER, 2017