MISS RODEO LENOX

Paying a Visit

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 19:10:00 +0000

Hello everyone!

The second weekend in September was the Miss Rodeo Iowa pageant at the Tri-State Rodeo in Fort Madison, Iowa. The journey through Iowa started Thursday night when I came home from college to pack and get ready for the weekend. The trip from Des Moines to Bedford went fast, but the long road was ahead of me the next day. Friday afternoon my mother and I made the eight county long trip that required a couple of breaks. Along the way, I received many calls from the pageant coordinators and helpers to get everything figured out. After a few missed turns and wandering around Fort Madison for awhile, the rodeo grounds were finally located.

After arriving I was hurried to get on my horse (that I had borrowed from Charity Howk, Miss Teen Rodeo Iowa 2011) to get ready, and settle into what I was told would be a, no-question-about-it, crazy grand entry. After meeting up with the candidates and queens, we waited for our names to be called for the queen's wave. The grand entry was a very interesting experience that brought me to a hault, literally! The horse I was riding decided he was going to "test" the water and see what I would do if he came to a complete stop before we got in the arena. My first wave as visiting royalty felt great and it was nice to see such a huge crowd of fans. Shortly after the grand entry the rain decided to move in, but it did not stop the rodeo, the fans, or the queens. Later on that night, Luke Bryan was the entertainment. I have to say that I was super excited to actually go to my first real concert.

Bright and early Saturday morning, rollers in my hair and the makeup was being applied. This was in preparation for the rodeo parade. I soon learned that constant smiling is tiring, and when Miss Rodeo Iowa said that it never seemed to end, she was correct. Blocks upon blocks of smiling children made the constant smiling bearable. After the parade finally ended, the next activity was to go to the pageant and coronation of Miss Rodeo Iowa and Miss Teen Rodeo Iowa 2012. Visiting this part of the pageant really made me realize that the pageant is a very special thing that gives so many opportunites for those who do it. Women are queens for a lifetime, sticking around to help and give back to the organization.

The rodeo started again with the grand entry and the queen's wave. After this, I went to go walk around the crowd and enjoy the rodeo. My mother and I sat in teh bleachers enjoying the food (corndogs and cotton candy). While sitting there, a little girl tapped on my shoulder and asked to get a picture with me. She very shyly said her name, but the excitment was all over her face. At that point, I realized that I was paying a visit, not because it was a requirement but because I was representing Lenox and the rodeo queen community. We are giving back to the communities and being a part of something bigger, something that has deep roots in rodeo and was built by strong women.

Until Next Time!

Alexandria Eischeid
Miss Rodeo Lenox 2011

Banner and Bruises

Sat, 27 Aug 2011 04:20:00 +0000

Nerves. Enough said. I don't think that anyone could sleep a wink the night before. The MRL pageant stared slow with modeling practice and how we were all going to enter and exit. In the back of my mind, I was just thinking "Don't fall and please don't forget your speech", and I do not believe I was alone.

Personal interviews were the next part of the pageant. All dressed up in our interview jackets, we let the judges see our personalities and knowledge. Lunch came next and the chicken salad was unbelievable! I just really wish I could have eaten the whole thing but again, nerves got the best of me. We showed off our stuff in modeling in our beautiful flowing leather dresses. Our speeches were next and I had to keep myself together, but of course, I had to take a little break mid-speech to try to think of what I was just talking about. Listening to Kayla's (MRL 2010), Charity's (MTRI 2011) and Suzy's (MRL 2009) queen stories got me excited. Then horsemanship came and I was just nervous about how in the world I was going to get back on my horse in the tight outfit ... but I did manage. Dinner at the Good Life Cafe felt and tasted good because we all knew we could let the nerves release.

The rodeo really made the adrenaline come out. Before I knew it, they were annoucing that I was the 2011 Miss Rodeo Lenox. As Kayla Barber crowned me, I think I was in disbelief that this was really happening. My first Queen's wave as MRL felt awesome and I could not stop smiling. I was loping around the arena as fast as my black horse could go (which I soon learned was NOT fast). Grand entry was next, and for this I was told I needed a faster horse. The people of rodeo really do have great sportsmanship as one of my fellow participants allowed me to use her horse to carry flags, do another queen's wave, and round up livestock. After putting on my leather chaps, sparkly new belt buckle, and the Miss Rodeo Lenox crown, I was ready for Grand Entry. I climbed aboard my horse and was told right away by Heather Beck and Suzy Fife to "GO, GO, GO" and they really meant go! Ace, the horse I was riding, shot off with me on his back and lets just say it was the fastest I have ever rode a horse! The wind at my face, the smiling crowd, and the music really hit home. I was Miss Rodeo Lenox. As the night went on Charity Lynn Howk (MTRI 2011), showed me the ropes of being a queen. Later on I signed my life away on my pictures and talked to kids and other fans.

On the last night, I was really initiated as Miss Rodeo Lenox by riding steers. In the back of the chutes, Charity and I put on borrowed gloves, helmets, and vests from some nice bullriders. I think the picture of us saying our last prayer before climbing aboard the steers (taken by Barb Brokaw) said enough about how we felt. We were just praying that we stayed on and the fall did not hurt too badly. Soon enough I was climbing on my steer and I think I said "Okay I'm ready" before I really had a chance to think about what was really happening. The steer took off bucking but after about 6 seconds I ran the steer out of energy and it ran to the fence. I took this as a sign that this should be my exit. 1 steer, 8 seconds, and 74 points; not too bad!

In just three days, incurred many experiences that I will never forget. Needless to say, I also was awarded with multiple bruises on my legs, arms, and chest from getting down and dirty with the rodeo. I got to know some great people that I would never have had the chance to know. Charity, Suzy, and Heather were all helping hands. My first banner that was given to me, gave me a lot more back than I expected ... and this was just my first appearance.

Until Next Time!

Alexandria Eischeid
Miss Rodeo Lenox 2011

Iowa Horse Fair

Wed, 04 May 2011 14:13:00 +0000

Hello everyone!

The Iowa Horse Fair is something I look forward to every year. Wtih great deals that no shopper can resist, clinics for every type of rider, activities and shows for anyone to enjoy - the Iowa Horse Fair is the place to be the first weekend in April. This year I got the pleasure of being there for a specific reason. I got to take the Miss Rodeo Lenox title with me.

Kimber (Metcalf) Dall, former Miss Rodeo Iowa, was in charge of all the queens for the weekend. She put me right to work at the kid's station. There they had bean bag games, hat tossing, coloring and a scavenger hunt. On Saturday we had a stick horse class in the Nutrena arena for all of the kids. There were two classes; one for 4 years olds and under and another one for 5-7 year olds. The kids did a great job and were very good participants. Later that day you could find me at the Miss Rodeo Iowa booth where I signed autographs and helped inform younger gals about the wonderful opportunities of being a rodeo queen/cowgirl queen has to offer.

On Sunday I was able to return to the Miss Rodeo Iowa booth in the morning. From there I headed to the kid's station where the scavenger hunt was in full swing. It was great for some of the kids who have not been around horses to learn interesting facts about them and become familiar with some of the breeds. That afternoon was the very first Iowa Horse Fair's Queen Contest. I was asked to help with handing out awards. There were lots of participants in the junior and senior age groups. I saw some really neat, not to mention beautiful outfits but I was more excited to see the number of participants. Congratulations to the new queens and to all who made the courts.

That puts a rap on my great time at the Iowa Horse Fair. I hope to see you at my next appearance but until then God Bless and Best Wishes.

Kayla Barber
MRL 2010

MRI and MTRI Coronations

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 20:25:00 +0000

Hello All,

I had the great pleasure of attending the Miss Rodeo Iowa and Miss Teen Rodeo Iowa Coronations. Heidi Gansen, MRI 2011, had her coronation on January 22, 2011 in Dubuque, Iowa. Charity Howk, MTRI 2011, had her coronation on February 12, 2011 in Bloomfield, Iowa.

Heidi had a great turn out for her coronation. She had many silent and live auction items. There were many great items that I would have loved to take home that's for sure! One item was the cake I had made and decorated and it sold for $45. I was very excited! I was even daring enough, while wearing a white dress, to show the cake as it was being auctioned off. It was sad to see Jordanne pass down the crown, she did such a great job representing Iowa and was a great roll model. Heidi has big shoes to fill, but she will do a wonderful job!

Watching Hannah pass down the title to Charity was sad as well, Hannah did a great job as Miss Teen Rodeo Iowa however I have great confidence that Charity will do a great job as well. I think the night was special for Kimber Dall too. She shared a story with everyone about her experience with Charity from the beginning. Her first encounter with Charity was during Charity's freshman year of Iowa High School Rodeo when she competed for the title of Miss Iowa High School Rodeo Queen. Charity came into the pageant with outdated clothes and makeup but when the scores came in that girl with the outdated clothes and makeup had won! Kimber has had the chance to watch Charity grow and develop as a rodeo queen when she competed her junior year to have the title for her senior year. The night was closed out with an auction, Charity had tons of great items. In fact I did my part in supporting and bought a shirt, necklace and boot bag! I also made Charity as cake as well.

God Bless and Happy Trails,

Kayla Barber
MRL 2010

MRI Fashion Show & Vegas Send off Party

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 16:01:00 +0000

Jordanne's (MRI 2010) send-off party was a great success! There were several people there including the Miss Rodeo Iowa board members, past Miss Rodeo Iowa queens, the 2011 Miss Rodeo Iowa Heidi Gansen, Miss Teen Rodeo Iowa 2010 Hannah Hilsabeck, Miss Rodeo Cherokee Tally Roepke and many other supporting people.

The party started off by introducing everyone, then it was on to the fashion show. Jordanne's beautiful arrangement of outfits really helps her set the stage for success in Vegas! All of her outfits fit perfectly and all were designed very well. I would tell you my favorite outfit however I couldn't choose if I had to. Her speech is still a work in progress but seems to be excellent. I can't wait to hear the final draft.

There were many items donated for the silent auction, the bidding was great! There were many "to die for" items there. There was also a children's picnic table that was a Hawkeye theme, this was a really nice item that was live auctioned at the end. All in all it was a great time!

I would like to wish Jordanne the best of luck in the competition for Miss Rodeo America 2011 in Las Vegas - safe travels Jordanne!!

Until next time!

God Bless,

Kayla Barber

MRL 2010

MRI and MTRI Pageant - Ft. Madison

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 17:42:00 +0000

My most recent appearance was September 9th-11th at the Tri-State PRCA Rodeo held in Ft. Madison, Iowa. This was a great PRCA rodeo! They had Jake Owen there performing after the Saturday night rodeo performance. It was a great evening and a big crowd.

But lets rewind to the beginning of the day. I started the day out with a very nice morning parade through the street of Ft. Madison. In the parade with me were Miss Rodeo Iowa, Jordanne Blair, Miss Teen Rodeo Iowa, Hannah Hilsabeck and Miss Rodeo Illinois, Katie Chaffin. Also joining us were the 2011 MRI and MTRI contestants.

After the parade we headed back to the Comfort Inn for the Miss Rodeo Iowa Fashion Show and the announcing of who would be the next Miss Rodeo Iowa and Miss Teen Rodeo Iowa. Joining in on the fashion show was Miss Rodeo USA, Dakota Missildine. After a very entertaining dance and some great modeling done by all the ladies it was time to announce who will be the next lady in waiting.

They started out by announcing the Miss Rodeo Iowa category winners. Horsemanship, Speech, Photogenics, and the Larry Roberts Spirit Award went to Heidi Gansen. Miss Congenality and People's Choice Award when to Rachel Bergren. Heidi Gansen was crowned as Miss Rodeo Iowa 2011, 1st runner up was Rachel Bergren and 2nd runner up was Rachel Burton. The Miss Teen Rodeo Iowa catergory winners were next. Horsemanship, Speech, and the Larry Roberts Spirit Award went to Charity Howk. Photogenics, Miss Congenality and High Raffle Ticket Sales went to Caitlin Kuehn. Charity Howk was crowned as Miss Teen Rodeo Iowa 2011 with Caitlin being named 1st runner up. Congratulations to all of you!

Until next time!

God Bless,

Kayla Barber

MRL 2010

Carson PRCA Rodeo

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 17:31:00 +0000

In August I found myself at the Carson PRCA Rodeo, it was such a great weekend! I arrived Friday night, Joe Simon provided a beautiful black and white paint for me to ride, carry flags with and chase out cattle on. Thank you Joe! The rodeo had such a great turnout, the clown was Punkin Town. He did an awesome job! My favorite act was the one that he did with his pony, they are definitely a great team.

The president of the rodeo committee, Ron Clark and his wife Terry where very nice and opened their home to Miss Teen Rodeo Iowa, Hannah Hilsabeck and myself for the weekend. Thank you Ron and Terry!

On Saturday morning I rode in the Carson parade. There were a lot of people in the parade that made it so much fun that Hannah and I had to ride through it a second time! it was a great time enjoyed by many.

Until next time!

God Bless,

Kayla Barber

MRL 2010

Hello from Miss Rodeo Lenox 2010

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 18:44:00 +0000

Hello everyone!

My name is Kayla Barber, the newly crowned Miss Rodeo Lenox 2010. This was my first rodeo queen pageant, I had a blast meeting and getting to know all the other contestants and competing as well.

I little bit about me, I am the daughter of Kevin and Teresa Barber of Winterset, Iowa. I will be attending Simpson College in the fall to major in accounting and play volleyball.

There were five contestants this year for the 2010 Miss Rodeo Lenox Pageant.

From left to right: Kayla Barber, Tia Campbell, Bronya Renfrow, Suzy Fife (Miss Rodeo Lenox 2009), Amanda McNees and Britni Larabee.

We started our wonderful Thursday morning off with speech and modeling practice, after that we were off to personal interviews. Next was our lunch and modeling with our speeches to follow at the Lenox Country Club. Then it was back to the rodeo arena for horsemanship. We then had a little break, waiting for the rodeo to start up. Talk about anticipation building up waiting for the results! It was finally time as we all made our runs and were introduced. They started announcing the individual awards. Then it was time for the moment we had all been waiting for.

After coronation was the rodeo. It was a great three nights of rodeo put on by the Rite N Gear Rodeo Company. The funny man for the rodeo was Woody the Clown, it was a great weekend enjoyed by many.

On Friday all of the visiting royalty and I went to the local care center to talk and play a "cowboy" game with them.

This is Jordanne Blair and her attempt to shoot out the candles with water guns. It was a lot of fun. The visiting royalty was Jordanne Blair (MRI), Hannah Hilsabeck (MTRI), Alicia Davison (Miss ISU) and Jenna Kool (Miss Dallas County Fair Rodeo).

On Friday night of the performance there was a special initiation ride done by the new Miss Rodeo Lenox (me) and the Miss Teen Rodeo Iowa (Hannah Hilsabeck) that was done last year by Suzy Fife and Shelby Chapman. This was carried on to this year to start a tradition. Hannah and I both rodeo steers in the steer riding portion of the evening. It was a blast and definitely fun to watch.

Until next time!

God Bless,

Kayla Barber

MRL 2010

Miss NFPB Pageant

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 20:24:00 +0000

Hello again devoted blog readers!

As some of you may know, on April 8th -11th I competed in the Miss NFPB Pageant. I had a wonderful time in St. Joe and at the NFPB Finals. The NFPB stands for National Federation of Professional Bullriders and has been going strong for the past 15 years. They are the only bullriding federation that has a queen to represent them. Since it was a national pageant, the contestant were from different states. There were four constantants: Micki Musick (Arkansas), Rachel Kelderman (Colorado), Sunnie Paintin (Colorado) and myself. Sadly to say I didn't win but I had the time of my life and met so many wonderful people. I must give a huge congratulations to Rachel Kelderman for earning the title of Miss NFPB 2010 and also to Micki Musick for Miss NFPB 1st runner up. I didn't walk away empty handed though, I won the categories of Most Ads Sold, People's Choice (don't count towards any of the judges scoring) and Photogenics. I have to send a huge thank you out to my mom. She was such a tropper for taking a few days off of work, driving me down there and staying in the hotel room all by herself. She did get to come shopping with us, we didn't leave empty handed there either! THANK YOU so much mom for supporting my rodeo queen dreams! I also have to give a huge thank you to everyone who sponsored me to go to this pageant. All the contestants had to raise at least $350 for a full page ad in the NFPB program. My sponsors were: Creston Livestock Auction, Dean & Karen Fife, Brian Johnson, Extreme Images by Ashley, Corning Meat Processing, Curry Ranch, Scott & Traci Johnson, Danyel & Sam Foreman and Donnie & Jan Willet. With out all of this support from home I wouldn't have done so well at the Miss NFPB pageant.

I also have to give a shout out to Kelsea Walker-Dodd, Paula Jameson and Rachel Burton (Miss NFPB 2009), these ladies are the ones who put the pageant on, it was such a great time. With out them, the pageant would have been very stressful and scary - Rachel was always willing to answer any of my questions before and druing the pageant. :) She was sad to give up her title and the Federation was sad to see her go. (This got me to thinking of how hard it's going to be to give up my MRL title in July!) All contestants got some great prizes just for competing such as a pair of jeans, a Cowgirl Trailer Trash

T-Shirt, a Cowgirl Couture T-Shirt, a Justin Boots baseball hat and the list goes on and on. I really had a blast at this pageant and will maybe run again next year!

During the pageant there was a "special rodeo" for all handicapped people of St. Joe. It was so much fun! There were horse rides around the arena given and there was even a place to practice roping. I helped give a few horse rides and then I helped with roping the dummy, although some people thought it would be funny to rope me as well ... I met so many great people there! During the performances, the contestants got to walk around the crowd and collect money for their People's Choice Award. During this time I got the opportunity to visit with a group of people that raise money for familes that have lost or are struggling with family members that have cancer. They were called Never Weaken, they taught me a new slogan that I would like to share with you. "Winners are not those who never fail ... but those who never weaken". I encourage you to check them out at www.neverweaken.com and help them spread the knowledge of their cause.

As for Miss Rodeo Lenox, we are in search for contestant's to run for this years pageant! I'm so excited for this, if you have any questions please feel free to look me up on facebook or shoot me an email. My next appearance will be in June for the Lenox Calf and Lamb Show.

See you down the trail ~ God Bless

Suzy Fife, MRL 2009

MTRI Coronation

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 22:13:00 +0000

Hello to all my devoted blog readers!

On February 13th my mom and I traveled to Winterset, Iowa for the Miss Teen Rodeo Iowa Coronation for Hannah Hilsabeck. I had a lot of fun and got a lot of goodies from the silent and live auctions. There was an exciting vibe going around the room that night. My coordinator, Heather Beck, and her husband got to attend as well. Congratulations to Hannah for having a successful evening full of great food and good company. After the live auction, there was a live band and dance. However, yep you guessed it, the great Iowa snow started up again so we couldn't stay to enoy the dance. There were many other queens that came to celebrate with Hannah; Shelby Chapman (MTRI '09) was there to pass the crown over, Jordanne Blair (MRI '10), Rachel Bergren (Miss URA '10), Jenna Kool (Miss Leon Princess '09) and Rachel Burton (Miss NFPB '09).

Until next time

Happy Trails

Suzy Fife, MRL '09