April 22-24/ CWU College Rodeo

Megan, Miranda, Me, and Brielle(Miss Moses Lake)

Ellensburg hosted the Central Washington University College Rodeo and since this is my college I decided I wanted to attend and help support my team at there home arena rodeo. I enjoyed helping put on the rodeo and riding in grand entry with the American Flag and going run ins everyday. The rodeo went well and some of CWU's students did great such as Bailey Minor put together a clean and fast run in breakaway roping during Friday afternoon’s slack. Her 2.9-second run not only the best during the afternoon, but it held tough to outlast the evening performers. Joey Bergevin also did really well in tie-down roping with an 8.9 second Saturday to secure him a spot in Sundays finals. Everyone did great and it was such a beautiful sunny weekend for a rodeo I'm glad I was there:)

Garrett Wolfe the winner of the bullriding

Jocelyn Sloan a CWU student breakaway roping

Joe Skinner during saddle bronc

 

April 16/ Jr, Little, and Sweetheart Miss Rodeo Washington Pageant

As I stood there at the front of the room waiting for each of the contestants to come up and draw a number, it seemed so funny to be on the other side of the pageant to be able to watch all of these amazing young girls who some day want to be in my shoes come up anxious to start the day. First on the schedule was horsemanship which each girl for the little and jr division had to some in and do equitation before they could do their reigning pattern.All of the girls did a really good job controlling their horses and making them do what they needed to even though some of them were being little stinkers! The sweetheart contestants on the other hand only had to do a horsemanship pattern on a stick horse which I got to demonstrate the pattern for and had a blast doing it:)

Finally it was time for the fashion show to start all of the contestants came out with there colors and did their dance which was super cute and all the girls looks like they were having fun. While the contestants changed into their dresses I got to entertain the crowd with some of my stories so far. Next were modeling, speeches, and impromptu questions which Taylor and I got to ask. After everything was being counted and tallied up I got to talk with the girls and let them know that they all did a wonderful job:)

All the contestants, Taylor and I :)

Having some fun!!

April 14/ Visiting Washington State Capitol

Brad Owen and I

Said  by a reporter for the capitol "Miss Rodeo Washington comes to town Amanda Emerson, Miss Rodeo Washington 2011, stopped by to visit with Lt. Governor Owen on April 14 while making the rounds in the state capital to promote rodeo in Washington. Emerson, who is from Omak, will represent Washington in the Miss Rodeo America pageant in December."

After driving in a blizzard to make it to the capitol at 9am, I changed into my dress and it was off to meet and greet with some of the Senators and House of Representatives, but what I was looking forward to the most was seeing Brad Owen the Lieutenant Governor again. As we made our way up to Brad Owen’s office to make him the first stop on our tour I was lucky enough to get a chance to talk to him for a good hour. Its always nice to know that he is just a normal person and we had a great talk about turkey hunting since he was excited to be going in a few weeks. After that I made my way to the Senate where I got introduced and received a standing ovation. Next we headed over to the House of Representatives where I had some pictures taken with some of them and got to talk with some people from my district.

 A big thank you to Jim Rowland for taking time to take me around the capitol and being my chaperon for the day...Your the best:)

April 7-10/ Miss Rodeo Arizona Pageant

After meeting up with Miss Rodeo New Mexico Kaycee McDaniel, we headed to the horsemanship portion of the contest which I think went really well. Then we all enjoyed pizza at a local pizza place and got to talk with the girls and really get to know them for the first time. That night was dance practice which went really well because the dance seemed a lot harder than it actually was. Finally I got to go meet my host family which were really nice and their home was beautiful with a pool and barn in the back, I got my own room and bathroom.

At horsemanship:)

The next day was the informal modeling and speeches and the girls did great with it being outside. Then it was off to the rodeo to carry flags and do run ins. The stock contractor Honeycutt was nice enough to let Kaycee and I use some of their horses. The rodeo started out with a prayer and then out of no where the lights just went off and it took about twenty minutes before the lights came back on and we finally got to start the rodeo. Our horses did great and the night was wonderful. Saturday was supposed to be the parade, but when I woke up the next morning it was pouring and the parade was rained out. So after breakfast we made our way to Saba's to sign autographs and invite people to the fashion show that night. It was finally time for the fashion show which all of us had been rehearsing for the modeling and speeches were first and all the girls did great. Kaycee and I changed into our dance routine outfits and went back stage with the girls to get ready for the She's Country dance. It was a blast and everyone loved it:)

As the competition came to a close it was finally time for the results and the winners are Audrey Hall who said, "As she stood on the stage at the end of the pageant, 21-year-old Audrey Hall was certain she wouldn't win the title of Miss Rodeo Arizona 2011.'I thought it was a pretty close competition and I didn't know how I would pull through. I knew I had done the best job I could, but part of me felt like I had blown it.'"  Miss Teen Rodeo Arizona was Brittany.

 <----Jayme one of the queen contestants, Kaycee and I at the fashion show.

On the bike that Kasey rode in on:)

 Sunday afternoon of the Cave Creek rodeo we arrive just like any other day until I look over and of all people to see...someone from my hometown no way haha it was Francis Marchand. He was up in bull-riding and I was excited to watch a hometown boy compete, he had an amazing 88 point ride and won not only the bullriding but all round as well. It was a great week in the wonderful Arizona sun and I enjoyed meeting all the people there, but it was time to head back home to the rain!

Francis and I at the rodeo:)

March 31-April 3/ DNCFR in Oklahoma City

We are making history!! I was honored to be able to attend the first Dodge National Circuit Finals Rodeo to be held in Oklahoma. I was lucky enough to actually share my flight into Oklahoma with Karl Stressmen and McKenzie Haley (Miss Rodeo America), we arrived and headed to the hotel which was beautiful inside sort of like a rain forest. That night we all were picked up in limos and taken out to eat at Toby Keith's and then got to go on a canal ride to view different places in Oklahoma. Then we went to the capitol building and a memorial from a bombing they had a few years back.

All of us with the limo

At Toby Keith's

Visiting the Capitol

The next day March 31 we had riding practice to see who would ride in the rodeo that night, it went great my horse's name was Rooster which I think was because he liked to bob his head haha:) Next we went to sign autographs and finally it was kick off time for the rodeo! The first night went amazing besides some of the horses being a little bad like McKenzie's bucking. 


Happy April Fools Day:) it was off to the shoot out that morning first thing. After we got about an hour to practice our shots it was time for the competition. I will admit during practice I wasn't the best and actually felt bad for anyone who was going to have to be on my team because I had only hit one the whole time. Well it ended up Martina(Miss Rodeo Utah), Darrel, and Darren (who were the PRCA cowboys on our team), and I were team number 4. Each person in the team got a chance to shoot at 10 clay discs, so Martina got up there and hit 10 out of 10 and then Darren did too and Darrel got 9 out of 10 so all the pressure was on me to do well. I got up there like I knew what I was doing and ended up shooting 7 out of 10 it was amazing. With a total of 36 our team blow everyone away and Martina and Darren won top shooters of the day!!  Then we headed to lunch at this place called Pop's which had every pop in the world at it and then it was autograph signing and the second round of the rodeo.

My team with our prizes

Everyone who did the shootout

Saturday the 2nd there were 2 rodeos performances, with one starting in the afternoon and the other was after autograph signing and dinner at this awesome restaurant. The rodeos have themes such as Native American night, art theme, military, and Oklahoma themed. Before each performance they did something to showing the meaning of each theme which was really neat because for the art night 2 guys came in and did a painting in only 15 minutes to have auctioned off. They also had Indian dancers come in and show the different styles of Native American dancing.

Before the rodeo with the Native American dancers

Lined up for the Rodeo

Sunday morning a few of us got up and went to Cowboy Church which was being put on by Susie McEntire, I had the privilege to speak at Church that morning about how I got started in rodeo and how God has helped me and it will be aired later on RFD-TV.Its time for the finals of the DNCFR and there were several cowboys from my circuit who made it in 4 of the 7 events. The day started out great Bobby Mote winning the bareback riding, then Trevor Knowles won the steer wrestling, Tyson Durfey won the Tie down roping, and finally Allen Hulmuth won the bulling riding, so every event that my circuits cowboys made it back in they won. It was awesome to be there cheering on the Columbia River Circuit who won the overall team championship for the first time ever. In all the trip to Oklahoma was amazing and I had a blast getting to see all the girls again:)