OHSRA rodeo at Oregon Horse Center

Once again, this is Kyra blogging!
While Jessica was attending the Cowgirls and Crowns clinic held by Miss Rodeo Oregon this weekend, the Oregon Horse Center was playing host to a rodeo for the Oregon High School Rodeo Association. And since OHC is the home of the Eugene Pro Rodeo, we all felt we needed the EPR to be present! And so, since Jessica couldn't be in two places at once, I got to be her substitute and be queen again for the weekend.
First off I was really ecxited because I haven't been very involved with horses in the past few months since my pony is now leased out and so naturally I am very sore today! Anyway, I had the great honor of wearing the "retired" queen chaps and I even got the chance to use the "souvenir crown" that my mom had made for me post-reign.
I was very glad to be able to work cattle and run a couple sponsor flags for the rodeo and the best part was watching all of these upcoming rodeo-stars doing what they do best! It made me sort of wish that I had done competition-rodeo while I was in high school, even though I would not have been nearly as good as the kids competing this weekend!
I just want to thank all of the people who made my weekend a blast and for letting me get my well-needed rodeo time in! Thank you to all of the members of OHSRA for having me and for running such a well organized high school event, and the biggest thank you goes to Mandi and Kaylee Hansen for letting me borrow Keely for my run-in and cows! She was fantastic and I loved getting to ride again!
And now, back to Jessica, your 2011 queen :D -Kyra Turner

Duck Parade

Last Saturday, I went just a few minutes from my house to our local Parade of Champions, Duck Parade. I had a lot of fun! I was a little worried at first trying to find parking in the middle of downtown Eugene, but luckily they had a big area cleared out so I was able to unload....right at the heart of Campus! I never thought I would be riding on the UO campus, and Rulu wasn't so sure about it at first, but she quickly realized it was game time and did great with all the new and interesting sights to see!
Since we were the only horse entry in the parade, I had a lot of people really excited to see Rulu. A couple of the girls working the parade traffic wanted to take a picture with her. The one girl however was scared of horses so any time Rulu moved she got a little nervous ;) I hope they were able to get a picture though! It was nice meeting lots of new people, and I ended up running into a lot of people that I knew throughout the parade. There was a lot of Duck Spirit and I think that it was a really fun atmosphere. I was really excited to get my Great Uncle's old parade saddle out too! It reminds me of a saddle Roy Rogers would have for Trigger. My Great Uncle used it in parades when he was part of the Sheriffs Posse so it was neat keeping the family history alive! I would also like to thank my helpers, Lian and Bev for helping me get ready, and McKenzie and Maddison for being my pooper scoopers. Not a very fun job but they can say they helped out when they try out for Miss EPR someday :)

Super Bulls

Last weekend I made the short trip up to Corvallis to attend the Super Bulls rodeo. I must say I was a little nervous because I hadn't been to the fairgrounds in years and wanted to make sure I knew where to go! I was thankful I left home early though, and I had a good copilot, my friend Lian, to come there with me. We got there with lots of time to spare which made it nice to have plenty of time to get Rulu (my horse) ready. Once the crowd started filling in, the Queens and barrel racers got in the arena quickly to get out of the rain! I got to meet Benton County Fair & Rodeo Queen, Clara Crocker who was very welcoming. It was nice meeting her along with all of the other queens.

 After I was done helping in the arena (and getting very wet from the rainy barrels we had to set up) Jen Conrad (Cottage Grove's queen) and I gathered up some kids for the stick horse race. It was so adorable watching the little kids who could barely walk try to run across the arena with their stick horses. Too cute!! Once all of us were done helping, we took some pictures and wrapped up a fun evening. I had a great time!

Me and the 2011 Cottage Grove Queen, Jenny Conrad

Coronation

Hi everyone! As of last night, I am officially your 2011 Miss EPR! I am so excited! I hope everyone had as great of an evening as I did! We started off the evening with a slide show if  pictures that have been taken of the queens over the last few years, and got to see some of the amazing pictures that Chris Sloan, the Queen Coordinator takes. After that, we had some delicious dinner and I got to visit with people and start taking the first of the many pictures for the evening! I was glad to see everyone there, and appreciated the visiting royalty coming to support! I got to meet Jenny Conrad, Cottage Grove's 2011 Queen, and Shalaina Joiner, Miss NPRA. It was so sweet of her to come. She had a very long drive and we appreciated her making the trip!

(All of the goodies for the silent auction! Thank you so much to everyone who donated and Bid!)

I also want to thank all of the girls that tried out- Whitney Richey, Kyra Russel, Jess Stanfill, and Angela Hurlburt. . Everyone did a great job at tryouts and the parade! It was great getting to know them all. Jess also donated a guided fishing trip to the silent auction which I greatly appreciated! I'm glad I got to meet all of the girls and I hope they had as much fun as I did! I hope they stick around this year so I can get to know them more!

2011 Miss Eugene Pro Rodeo Tryouts

2011 Miss Eugene Pro Rodeo- Jessica Shafer

Horsemanship- Jessica Shafer

Appearance/Personality- Jessica Shafer

People's Choice- Jessica Shafer

Congratulations to all of our contestants and their very hard work. They all prepared and it was great seeing their hard work in action. For me, I had a little bit of a hard time since I am friends with all of the contestants except for Jess, but she quickly grew on me and the other judges as well :)

I hope we will see all of our contestants competing next year, or on another court, or even better, they can help me as a volunteer at the rodeo! This will also be my farewell blog post, since as of Thursday at 6pm, I will be handing down my title. Again, congratulations Jessica, and welcome to a very busy and rewarding year!  --Kyra Turner 

The girls doing a queen run all together :)

Award Sponsors for the 2011 Tryouts

First, I want to say a huge thank you to Innovative Fabricators Inc. who sent us some goodies to give to each of our contestants at the coronation on January 13. And another huge thank you is due to Jean Sirotek. She doubles as my mom and as a vinyl cutting artist! She is donating full trailer vinyl to the winning contest and a serape! She also does other queen's vinyl. She did mine, 2010 Yoncalla Rodeo Queen, Kayla Weeldreyer and she did the 2010 South Douglas Rodeo Queen, Hannah Sheely's trailer. She does window decals and vinyl for awards and glass etching! She does completely unique custom work and is very inexpensive. Another award sponsor that we have is Natalie Napier who makes custom jewelry. She kindly sponsored a necklace for the Appearance/Interview portion of the competition.

If you or anyone would like to sponsor some awards for our five lovely contestants, please email me (Kyra) kturner91@hotmail.com . We would love to show off your business and products at the coronation which will have an entire room full of people to appreciate the awards. Right now I still need a horsemanship award, appearance, and a speech award. We are also having a silent auction to raise funds for the queen to travel with next summer. I would estimate that I spent at least $500 on gas alone this year with all of the different events I attended. At the coronation, I will be able to share your fliers or business cards, and you will be linked on this blog which averages about 120 views per day.

Please help out in the making of the 20th Annual Eugene Pro Rodeo!

Here is a sample of the work Jean is doing for the serape and also a sample of Innovative Fabricator's.

Springfield Christmas Parade

On December 11, the 2011 contestants and I got together for the 58th annual Springfield Christmas Parade. I had a great time getting to meet and talk with all of the girls at once. And we all got soaked together by the rainy weather! The contestants also had no idea that this was one part of their judging process for the competition! We were a little rushed getting ready because I am not used to getting more than one horse decorated in time :)


Thank you to all the girls for showing up on time and helping me represent the rodeo in my hometown! And thank you to their families that helped where they could and on behalf of all of the contestants and myself, thank you to Cody Fulkerson for following us in the parade and being our pooper-scooper and co-judge. And one final thank you to the city of Springfield for providing this opportunity for us to ride.

The next stop for us is the 2011 Miss Eugene Pro Rodeo tryouts on January 8th.

Photo Credit: Brian Jones