Congressman Steve King at the Iowa State Fair

WASHINGTON D.C. - Congressman Steve King celebrated the start of the Iowa State Fair by meeting with many representatives of Iowa's next generation of agriculture leaders, including Miss Rodeo Iowa, Amanda Eason. The two used the opportunity to discuss issues important to the Iowa cattle industry.

Ms. Eason, from Clarinda in Page county, is 22-year old daughter of Steve and Alisa Eason. Amanda received her Bachelor of Science degree in Animal Science from Iowa State University in May, and will begin coursework at the College of Veterinary Medicine in the fall.

"Amanda represents the future of Iowa's agriculture economy," said Congressman King. I'm very encouraged that Amanda plans to practice veterinary medicine here in Iowa after she completes her degree. She and her generation will decide the destiny of our Iowa."

"We wish the best to our Miss Rodeo Iowa as she starts her veterinary studies this fall," said Congressman King.

Congressman Steve King (R-IA) represents Western Iowa in the United States Congress and sits on the Agriculture, Judiciary and Small Business Committees.

Sounds Like Fun--Iowa State Fair!

Four-term former Governor of Iowa, Terry Branstand, Chopper, Kelsey Ford, and I at the Governor's Charity Steer Show at the Iowa State Fair.

I would do it again in a heartbeat!

I am still walking in the clouds because I got the opportunity to show my first steer EVER in the Governor's Charity Steer Show at the Iowa State Fair! I had the time of my life and I relive the show daily so many times that I catch myself holding an imaginary steer's head up with one hand and using the show stick with the other! Thanks to many wonderful college friends, family members, and newly found friends, I was granted the "People's Choice Award" by the amount of applause from the crowd. I was up against Jamie Pollard (ISU Athletic Director) and the athletic director for the University of Iowa, therefore, I believe I was the neutral ground between the Cyclone vs. Hawkeye rivalry because we all got about the same amount of cheers (not to mention the only gal among the group).

My undergraduate college advisor and professor of animal science at Iowa State, Brad Skaar, was the judge who selected the Grand Champion and other top 4 steers of the show based on their structural conformation, condition, and quality. It was great to see Dr. Skaar and to know they had selected a great "Iowa Stater" to be a part of the show. The competition was all in good nature because the steers were sold after the show and all of the money goes to the Ronald McDonald House Foundation of Iowa, which creates a home-away-from-home and supportive community for families of children with life-threatening illnesses receiving specialized treatmentat local hospitals. I give my highest regards to the Iowa Cattlemen's Association and the Iowa Beef Industry Council for supporting such a great organization.

However, the most honorable part of the day is when former Iowa Governor, Terry Branstad, who was the showmanship judge for the show, came up and shook my hand. He told me he had me picked as the showmanship winner, but the show committee told him not to give two awards to the same person, so since I had just won the "People's Choice Award", he gave the Showmanship Award to Jamie Pollard. That comment made my day! I was hoping to receive the Showmanship Award because I felt it was analogous to winning the Horsemanship portion of a competition--so I was very honored to hear it from Mr. Branstad himself (not to mention I have always wanted to meet him)!


Miss Kelsey Ford, Chopper, and I sporting our "People's Choice" Ribbon! Thank you Kelsey!

If it were not for Kelsey Ford of Milo, Iowa, I would not have been able to do as well as I did. She gave me tips and instructions on how to show "Chopper", as well as put all the work into him months in advance of the show. Kelsey (who will be a freshman at ISU--which proves she is a truly great person) and her dad, Mike, have been bathing and blowdrying Chopper for three to four months to encourage the growth of his hair so they would be able to fit him for show condition. Thank you, Mike and Kelsey, for all of your un-sung hard work, and for letting me have the time of my life showing your steer!

I would also like to thank Farm Bureau for sponsoring "Chopper" in the Governor's Charity Steer Show and for letting me be your showperson! Richard Merrill gave me the exciting call to ask me if I would be interested in showing a steer for them in the show which started my two-week countdown for the show! They named the steer "Chopper" after the Farm Bureau sponsored E-85 American Chopper motorcycle that is currently being raffled off at $10 per ticket and will be given away in mint-condition at the Iowa State vs. Iowa game this September. Thank you, Farm Bureau, for all you do for your members (including my family) and creating a memory I will never forget!

Though the steer show was by far the highlight of the Iowa State Fair for me, I also had a great time spending time at many booths and watching the Cowgirl Queen Contest. Congratulations Rachel Burton, Miss Rodeo Iowa Teen, and faithful Tank for placing in the Top 5 at the contest! During a radio interview about the Governor's Steer Show with Mark Pearson of WHO Radio at the Cattlemen's Beef Quarters, I was shown the "veterinarian's handshake" by Mr. Pearson that mimics cattle palpation, and got to meet Iowa Congressman Steve King, who represents Southwest Iowa at the Fifth District!

King, Julie Buddenberg's 4-year old, 18 hand, 2000 pound pride and joy!

Much to my suprise, I ran into Miss Julie Buddenberg of Decorah Iowa and her beautiful Belgian team! It was great to see Julie again, and she let me ride one of her horses bareback! She atttached two leadropes on King's halter, showed me a stool to climb up on, told me to use commands just like I was driving him, and to have fun! It was great! All 18+ hands and 2,000+ pounds and I took off and went for a little pleasure ride. Julie is an amazing person, and I wish her the best of luck in school this fall!

Another great person I spent time with at the fair was Sherry Davis of Adel, Iowa. Sherry asked me to sit in the WW Livestock Systems booth, for which she is a dealer of quality livestock panels and rodeo bucking chutes. Sherry was one of my judges during the Miss Rodeo Iowa pageant and also sponsored a weekend stay at her beautiful Calico Bluffs Cabins in Arkansas! It was great to see Sherry again because I have not seen her since the John Wayne Centennial in Winterset!

One Word: Beautiful--both the horse and the gold dome of the state capitol!

To round out my Iowa State Fair appearances, Pepper Ann and I kicked off the fair by riding in the Iowa State Fair Parade down Grand Avenue in downtown Des Moines. We were lucky enough to be the first horse-related entry in the parade! Even though it did rain during portions of the parade, we still had a great time and got a few seconds of fame on t.v.! The parade route took us right by the state capitol, with its dome shining bright as ever. I had a wonderful time at the fair, and hope you will make the trip to Des Moines to take everything in before it's over--August 9-19th!

Seeing the state capitol got me thinking and reminiscing about this past year and all of the opportunities I have been granted, great places I have been, and wonderful people I have met. I feel very fortunate to be representing the state, and have begun to realize how much it has done for my future career, appreciation of Iowa, and personal development. This title has been a "coming of age" event for me, and I feel very blessed to be surrounded by the many great people in the Miss Rodeo Iowa Organization that have built the program and title to be what it is today--especially Bobbie Hinds and Paula Jameson. Thank you, gals, for all the blood, sweat, and tears you have put into this organization to allow great things to happen that turn young ladies into women.

This week, I am back to school in veterinary school orientation, with classes beginning next week! I do not know where the summer went, but am excited to go back to school and a little nervous! I will be spending time with my friends of the Heartland Rodeo Company again in Nevada, Iowa on August 24-25th, and then heading to Ft. Madison the next weekend to attend the special rodeo, youth rodeo, visit schools and sponsors, and prepare for the Miss Rodeo Iowa 2008 Pageant! Good luck, girls, and study hard because this title is the opportunity of a lifetime!

Always Feels Like Home in Sidney!

Lending a helping hand to get one of the floats ready for the parade Wednesday. Thank you, Pepper Ann, for holding still while I attached the flags!

What a great week in Southwest Iowa! I just returned home from the 84th Annual Sidney, Iowa Champioship Rodeo, and as always, it was a spectacular rodeo. It felt like a homecoming for me because I saw many familiar faces and places! The Sidney Rodeo Board and Williams-Jobe-Gibson American Legion Post 128 have been so kind to me over the years as a drill team member, rodeo queen contestant, and finally the queen. They are extended members of my family so I had a great time spending time with them. It was nice to fall right into the swing of things and not have to feel out of place because I know how the rodeo operates over there. Great job, gentlemen, on another successful year, and thank you for all you have done to shape me into who I am today!

Congratulations Holly Soucie, the new Miss Sidney, who will have a great time promoting one of Iowa's best rodeos. I was honored to be in the presence of visiting royalty Kelsea Walker, Miss Rodeo Illinois, Rachel Burton, Miss Rodeo Iowa Teen, and Jessica Iodence, the Aksarben Rodeo Queen (I found out she will be a junior at THE BEST university this fall . . . Iowa State). Rachel and I were very graciously hosted by Cindy Bebout who has a house right across from the arena, so it was very handy to not have far to travel for a shower at night. Speaking of showers, the weather was typical August Sidney Rodeo weather: hot, sunny, and very humid--but it felt SO GREAT to be back in Rodeo Town, U.S.A.!
Rachel and I posing by my beautiful "Sunshine 'S' Trailer Sales" Featherlite horse limo!


During the week we visited my favorite radio host, Jerry Dietz, for a radio interview. Jerry is always fun to talk with and does a great job with his radio show. The neat thing about KCSI is that it is a family business and his wife and daughter work just as hard as he does to keep 95.3 FM one of the most informative and enjoyable radio stations to listen to! I also got the chance to see the beautiful Allie West, Jerry's granddaughter, who is one of my young queen hopefuls--Jerry just doesn't know it yet! She will be celebrating a birthday later this month, which is proof that great people are born in the month of August!



On Friday, Rachel, Holly, the bullfighters, and I also took time to visit the Sidney Senior Center as well as the nursing homes in Sidney and Shenandoah. We had a great time visiting with people and signing autographs. We also got to stop in the radio studio of KMA 960 AM and do a live on-air interview. We had a busy but fun day, and got to finish it off with coming back to the rodeo grounds and eating the best cowboy beans in the entire world made by Teresa Biermann of Quick Draw Todd's Smokeshack. This was the same recipe that was served at my coronation, so it had been WAY TOO LONG since I have been able to taste them again!


My beautiful youngest sister Kelli!


Friday also happened to be my birthday, so it was fun to celebrate it in Sidney at the rodeo (where I have celebrated it for the last 15-plus years)! McCarthy's One Hour Heating and Air Conditioning brought me over a large cake that we shared with passer-by's. It was delicious, but what made it even better was that I got to share it with my friends and family, including Megan Wiemold (Miss Rodeo Iowa 2004), Jerry Dietz, the Sidney Rodeo Board, and my sister Kelli who came over to the rodeo for my birthday even though she had just had surgery that morning! What a great sister! (Sara is a great sister too, but she was on a cruise!) That night at the rodeo I FINALLY talked the mutton busting champion for the night out of a kiss on the cheek! Little did he know, but it was a smart move on his part because I had been turned down the two previous nights and told myself that I was going to chase Friday night's champ around the arena until he gave in!

I just turned 23 and this was my first kiss--and what better company than the Friday night mutton busting champion?


It was a wonderful weekend, but after the rodeo Friday night, I was not done. I loaded up Pepper Ann and headed home so I could go to Greenfield Saturday for Bethany Jo Thompson's wedding! It was a beautiful outdoor ceremony, craftily planned and decorated by the one and only Paula Jameson (Bethany's mom)! Paula did a wonderful job, and I felt very honored to be one of the bridesmaids--not to mention we got to dance and sing karaoke at the reception! Best of luck to Bethany, Brandon, and LeDoux (the little red Australian Shepherd that wandered up to the reception hall while we were in the middle of rehearsal) for the wonderful future they will share together!

This week I am off to the Iowa State Fair for the parade, Cowgirl Queen Contest (I will just be observing), and GOVERNOR'S CHARITY STEER SHOW! I am so excited to show "Chopper" that I can hardly contain myself! I will be sure to have someone take pictures so I can share my experience with you on here--which definitely checks off one of the many things on my "list of things to do in a lifetime." Until then, take care!

Wonderful Wyoming and the Daddy of 'em All!

I just returned home from the Cheyenne Frontier Days--what a great trip! Kelsea Walker, Miss Rodeo Illinois, and Kaytie Zuidema, Miss Rodeo Michigan, and I packed the Impala and headed west to Wyoming. There is no better way to get to know someone than on an 8 hour road trip, and by the time we returned to Iowa, we all felt like sisters--at least the type of sisters who get along with one another and do not fight!

While in Cheyenne we participated in a chuckwagon pancake cooking and acutally flipped the pancakes out of the wagon to the "catchers" armed with cookie sheets to land the hotcakes! I do have to say that I got pretty good at flipping the pancakes out of the wagon and relied on my ancient basketball skills to put some pretty fancy "english" (backspin) on the flying hotcakes! The rotary club sponsoring the breakfast tried to get me to sign a contract to come back the next year to flip pancakes, but I had to turn them down.

The Harry Vold Ranch provided the other state queens and I with beautiful, sleek, athletic, and fast black horses to do "fly bys" during the performances of rodeo. It was awesome! The arena is within a horse racing track, so we got to run our horses in front of the south grandstands on the homestretch of the track. The girls and I were there for three performances, and after each run I was ready to do it again! There are not many other things better than flying at full speed on a horse--that you know will stop when you want him to! I had a wonderful time at the rodeo and felt honored to be a part of it.

Katie Zuidema (Miss Rodeo Michigan), me, and Kelsea Walker (Miss Rodeo Illinois) sporting our beautiful Vold horses before the parade.

We were also able to borrow horses to participate in the rodeo parade throughout downtown Cheyenne. I felt very spoiled because each time we went to pick up our horse, they were already saddled! I would like to thank Kip, who works for the Vold Ranch, for the hard work he put it to get our horses saddled, looking great, and ready to go! I was lucky to get to ride Scar, a pickup horse, for the three days I was there! I would have gladly loaded the black bald-faced horse on a trailer and taken him back to Iowa with me!

During our trip we met many wonderful people including Karen Vold, wife of Harry Vold, who has great bucking stock every year at the NFR. We also met Bobbie Romer, a past bullfighter who was there trying to fight off the bull that struck Lane Frost and caused his death. We were honored to talk with Mr. Romer who has quite a colorful history himself in the rodeo world.

However, the one person who touched my life in so many ways and has given me a new outlook on life, is Arlene Kensinger. She is a past trick rider and trick water skier from Cheyenne who has been very instrumental in the advancement of the rodeo queen world. Arlene is the one all rodeo queens can thank for being considered an integral part of the rodeo and public face for the sport. She is a member of 5 different Hall of Fames, so I was honored to be in the presence of a living legend! Arlene lost her leg in a tragic accident 12 years ago, but because of her optimistic outlook and stately presence, one would never know. Thank you, Arlene, for being an inspiration to me to take whatever pitch is thrown at me and hit a homerun with it!

It always feels good to get back home, but Cheyenne was one place that was hard to leave. I was kindly hosted by Ann, Paul, Heather, and Justin Sanchez. They let me stay in their beautiful home and welcomed me in like one of the family. Heather and I start vet school together in Ames in August, so it was neat to get to know my newest study partner! I was sad to leave the Sanchez home, but glad to know that I will be seeing them again over the course of the next four years! Everyone from the rodeo committee went out of their way to make all of us state queens feel welcome! There is no question why the rodeo is the "Daddy of 'em All" and part of every cowboy song. Thank you, Cheyenne, for a memory of a lifetime--I will definitely return!

This week I will head to the Iowa rodeo very near and dear to my heart--the Sidney, Iowa Championship Rodeo! As always, I will be celebrating my birthday at the rodeo, so if you are in Sidney on Friday, August 3rd, you will have to stop by the McCarthy One Hour booth, who are one of my kind sponsors, for some birthday cake! After Sidney, I will be heading to the State Fair to show a steer for the Iowa Farm Bureau in the Governor's Charity Steer Show! I am SO excited and cannot wait because I have ALWAYS wanted to show a steer and now I have the opportunity. The steer's name is "Chopper" and have been told he is a looker, so watch out Governor Culver, Chopper and I plan on giving you and your steer a run for your money! The show is Saturday, August 11th at the best state fair in the nation, so come join us if you are able!

On the Road Again!

Look who I found at the Lenox Rodeo: Lauren Scholz (Miss Sidney, Iowa Rodeo) and Rachel Burton (Miss Rodeo Iowa Teen)!


What a fun-filled week!


Rachel Burton, Miss Rodeo Iowa Teen, and I had a busy but fun run of rodeos in Southern Iowa. We began the week at the Centerville, Iowa Rodeo in conjunction with the Appanoose County Fair. John Steenhoek of the Heartland Rodeo Company supplied the great stock for the two-day event that kept the crowd entertained throughout the evening. Rachel and I got to help run flags in the opening ceremony as well as clear the arena during the timed events. I would like to commend the Appanoose County Fairboard for a great fair. The rodeo was a great addition to the list of entertainment; I think every county fair should have a rodeo!


Upon leaving Centerville we headed to Lenox, Iowa for the rodeo produced by the Rite 'N' Gear Rodeo Company and contractor Barry Wright. Rachel and I had a fun time helping with the mutton busters and carrying flags in the grand entry. We were able to watch and enjoy the rodeo from the autograph table which enabled us to meet many of the rodeo spectators during the performance. We were joined by the Lenox Royalty, Katie Stark and Suzi Fife, Lacey Glover (Miss United Rodeo Association), Suzette Walker (Miss Teen Rodeo Iowa), and Lauren Scholz (Miss Sidney, Iowa Rodeo). I also got to be in the presence of the great Miss Rodeo Illinois, Kelsea Walker, who works for Barry Wright. I had not seen Kelsea for over a month so she was quite the sight for sore eyes with her Angora "woolie" chaps!
From Lenox Rachel and I moved to Bedford, Iowa for an Extreme Bull Riding Tour Event held in conjunction with the Taylor County Fair. It was great to see Todd Crase and Shad Smith again, and even more fun to watch the event. The tour attracted many PBR standout riders to Southwest Iowa. Todd and Ryan Skillett do an outstanding job with the production of the event, complete with fireworks, smoke machines, and lighting the arena on fire for the short round. Shawn "Boom Boom" Thompson is also a vital part of the show by keeping the crowd entertained and light-hearted from his barrel.
Shad Smith prides himself, though humble as they come, in the quality of his bucking stock. Many of his bulls are on the PBR Tour and will buck at the PBR Finals in Las Vegas this fall. Shad's Double "S" Bucking Bull Ranch resides in Sidney, Iowa which makes me proud because of another standout from our state! During the Extreme Event there was a section of freestyle bullfighting which was definitely a crowd-pleaser! The bulls were small, quick, and mean which made for some great bullfighting! Great job Shad, Todd, and Ryan for the work you do to make your events "the hottest show on dirt"!While in Bedford, I ran into my aunt, uncle, and cousins, who showed their lambs at the fair. Though they tried to play "tough guys" by not smiling, Rachel and I talked Paul and Dalton into posing in a picture with us because Paul won champion and reserve champion rate of gain--and this was his first year of 4H! Congratulations, Paul, on a job well-done!

On Monday I headed to Nevada, Iowa to judge the Story County 4H Horse Fun Show. I had a great time selecting winners in the Costume Race, Tandem Back to Back Class, Adult Western Pleasure, Water Glass Pleasure, etc. Thank you, Claire Hall, for the invitation and opportunity to have fun with the kids and their parents!


This week Kelsea Walker (Miss Rodeo Illinois), Katie Zuidema (Miss Rodeo Michigan), and I are headed to the "Daddy of 'em All" in Cheyenne, Wyoming! I am very excited and looking forward to the trip because I have driven by the arena several times, but have never stopped or been to the rodeo. I cannot wait to get there and experience the atmosphere of one of the most famous rodeos in the world! As neat as it is, the host family I will be staying with is the home of a future vet school classmate that I will get to meet!

I hope you are enjoying your summer as much as I because it is flying by way too quickly! I cannot believe it is almost time for the rodeo season to slow down and school to begin! I will be sure to take many pictures in Cheyenne, so please check back in a few weeks!