Stick Horse Rodeo and Winter Fair - Lewistown

Stick Horse Rodeo and Montana Winter Fair - View Photo Album from Stick Horse Rodeo

It was my first official event! My mom and I left for Lewistown Montana, a 5 hour 6 minute drive, at around 3 pm. We turned on the tunes, got some good old road candy and hit the road.

We arrived in Lewistown around 9 o’clock. Kate Ruland had kindly offered her house for us to stay in, but unfortunately due to my cat allergies we weren’t able to do that. Luckily the Yogo Inn had a room available and we crashed there for the night.

I woke up the next morning and started the process of getting ready. We arrived at the Fairgrounds at about 10:15, right on time! The arena was already filled with tons of kids running around on their stick ponies. Now this arena was heated, but did I mention the high for that day was about 4 degrees!!! It wasn’t the warmest environment I’ve ever been in, but let me tell you it was all worth it!! The Stick Horse Rodeo was a blast! These kids, all 68 of them, really got into it! They started by crowning the Prince and Princess of the rodeo, and that was followed by a grand entry. Lesli and I lead the grand entry and also demonstrated how to do each event, even though these kids were already pro’s!! The rodeo consisted of Barrel Racing, Steer Roping, and my officially new favorite kiddie rodeo event, Bull Dogging! In bull dogging the kids ride their horses up to a bale of straw, jump off of their horses and push over the straw bale. It was so much fun to watch!

After the Kiddie Rodeo ended Mary Knerr, our hostess for the day, treated Lesli and me to a great lunch at the 4 Aces in Lewistown. My hands were basically icicles now, so any place warm sounded amazing! The food was great and I warmed up really fast. Followed by lunch we headed back over to the Fair Grounds to take a tour of the booths. There were so many interesting booths, I couldn’t believe it. After touring the booths we went to draw for the lucky person who would get a handmade quilt. Lesli quickly entered her name 5 times before the drawing, the quilt looked like a perfect traveling buddy!! The last thing on our list to do was help with the “Death by Chocolate” auction. Those cakes and other chocolate treats looked sooooo good!!

I had such a great time! It was so much fun to have Lesli there and it was an all around good time. I can’t wait to go back to Lewistown, it was such a fun town, I just hope it’s a little warmer next time I go!!!

God Bless

Sam

2009 Pageant

The Pageant 2009 – View Photo Album from the Pageant

WOW!! What an exciting week! From the written horsemanship test to the fantastic style show, the week of the pageant was filled with tons of fun!

I arrived at the Hampton Inn around 3:00 pm and immediately started the process of getting ready, check in was at 5. After all the primping and curling of the hair, I went downstairs for check in. Everyone was super nice and we all got to know each other really fast. There were three queen contestants, Shantell Frame, Lesli Furniss, and Elise Anderson. Also there were four teen contestants, Amy Hager, Lauren Brunsvold, Jesse Eades, and myself. After getting to know each other a little it was time for room assignments! I was in a room of three people… let’s just say it was a bit crowded! In my room it was Shantell, Amy, and me. We had such a blast and had some pretty interesting jokes. All in all we had a great time.

After we got settled into our rooms it was time to take the dreaded horsemanship test. This test consisted of questions involving PRCA, parts of the horse, and just all around stuff a good rodeo queen should know! The written horsemanship test was an hour exactly, so as soon as we were finished we went to our first rehearsal.

Thursday was the day of our first of three impromptu questions, horsemanship, horsemanship interviews, PRCA mixer, and lastly the Pajamarama Party!! Thursday was also the day we went to Hoglunds, a western store in Great Falls, to pick out our outfits for the style show. The outfits were all gorgeous and it was a blast modeling them. We ended the day with Pajamarama. It was so much fun! Visiting royalty from around Montana came, so I got to know tons more rodeo queens!

Friday included Personal Interviews, The Speech Luncheon, and finally the rodeo. Personal Interviews were so much fun. All of the judges were funny and nice, so it made talking to them very easy! The speech luncheon was fantastic. We had Barbeque sandwiches for lunch. Don’t get me wrong they were delicious, but eating barbeque in elegant dresses not so easy!!

Saturday was one of my favorite days. In the morning we were introduced at the Rodeo Committee Meeting and after that we transferred all of our clothes to the Heritage Inn for the Style Show… that was quite a process!!! The Style Show was so fun. We modeled all of the clothes from Hoglunds and then our western elegance outfits. After all of the craziness of changing settled down, we headed straight for the Kiddie Rodeo. I helped out in the steer roping, and let’s just say I’m not too great of a roper! I managed though and it was a lot of fun seeing those kids run around the barrels and rope the steers.

Finally Sunday came around. We were all extremely nervous for coronation and for the final impromptu coronation question. After waiting for what seemed like 8 hours the winners were finally announced. Lesli and I were escorted to a nearby room where we signed contracts and all that fun stuff, and soon after that went back up to our rooms to change for the rodeo.

Jennifer and I left early for the rodeo and stopped to get a bite to eat at Arby’s… YUM! Jennifer is so supportive and nice, she was really helpful and I’m so thankful that she was there with me. At the rodeo I borrowed one of Gary Rempel’s pick up horses, Felix. He was huge!! I got to do a queen buzz and then hand out awards at the end of the rodeo. I had such a great time! After the long, tiring week my family and I packed up and headed out back to Florence. I couldn’t have had a better time and can’t wait for next year’s pageant!! :)

Happy Trails,

Sam

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