Hellzapoppin' Rodeo!

Last weekend, my mom drove me, Elsa, and two of my little sisters all the way out to Buckeye to participate in the Hellzapoppin’ Rodeo. We were only three minutes away when my mom realized that she had forgotten her flip-flops. But wait, it gets better. When we got to our little patch of dirt to pitch a tent, I saw that I had no blankets. Or pillows. My mom had a cot. But no sleeping bag. On the other hand, my little sisters, Julie, age 6, and Ivy, age 4, came well prepared. Their bags were stuffed full, so we thought they were all good to go, right? Well, they had about three blankies, two unicorn pillows, two socks, and two shirts between the two of them. No wonder the bags were full… unfortunately, they had no jeans. But! Mom stuck a pair each into the car, just in case.

So Elsa was very excited, and she was eager to see everything. She did very well warming up, but was pretty spooked when she was right next to the booming speakers. She is quite the dancer, as we found out. We just loped (a slower run) the hot lap, as Elsa doesn’t know how to gallop. And she never will, hopefully.

Handing out autographs and selling raffle tickets was really fun, and I met a very cute little cowgirl who was really excited to see the sparkly rodeo queens. (I hope I see you there!) She brought over some friends of hers, and I was pretty busy signing autographs for awhile, because the friends kept bringing more friends, and they brought more friends, and well, you get the picture. I was definitely occupied.

When we got back to the tent, my mom decided she wasn’t going to sleep without a sleeping bag, so we all huddled up as best we could. As expected, we were all running for the car and the heater within hours. It would have been fun to stay in the tent the whole night, though. Oh, and by the way, everyone else had RV’s. With beds. And heaters. And more insulation. So…

Saturday was really fun. Of course no one wanted to get out of the car, but at 9:30 in the morning, what else would you do? I went and rode Elsa, then we hung around the tent, without motivation to take it down. Finally, we took it down, and then I worked Elsa again. And then my mom and I played volleyball. We still had one section of the tent up, so we went and took naps in there for a while, before hosing down my hair at the horse wash rack (we couldn’t find the shower, and there weren’t any other options, ok! I didn’t really like it. Like, pretty much at all.). I read a book while I was waiting for my hair to dry (by the way, it was Artemis Fowl, and those are such amazing books!!!). I got dressed, and helped with the mutton bustin’ like the night before. Oh, right! Mutton bustin’ is where you put a little cowboy/cowgirl on a sheep, and they are awarded points for the best ride. The winner got a buckle, and the first place winner on Friday was a little cowgirl, and I am telling you, that girl was GOOD! Anyways, we helped out with that (we being the Queens, except Halle couldn’t be there on the second day. And Brittany was at another rodeo), and then took a picture. Elsa was better on Saturday, but still antsy. She wasn’t happy going into the gate before the “Happy Trails” thing at the end…so I was kind of late. Anyways, the drive home was very long, but we had a really good time.

Busy week!

Well,the Chick-Fil-A appearance didn’t go exactly as planned, but it was still pretty fun. We were given sodas, and we practiced autographs on those. We talked with each other and with the security guard who was driving around the parking lot. Almost my entire family came to see us, and my little cousin, Abby, was so excited about my crown, so I let her try it on… We also got our autograph cards, which look really neat!

 

We also went to a town council meeting, and that was really neat. We got to see some of the reports of the town’s status, and saw a new possible feature for the town website.  I had no idea that all of those things happened in the Town Hall! We even got to take pictures with the town councilmen and Mayor Barney.

Harkins groundbreaking

Today was the Harkins Theater groundbreaking ceremony in Queen Creek. It was really neat to go and see an event in my town, and it’s so exciting that we will get a movie theater so close to my area! We waited in the Queen Creek Marketplace next to the Target, where the new theater will be. Halle, Brittany and I were behind the VIP food table, while popcorn and waters were being handed out, t-shirts and cups were sold, and a drawing was held for a Target gift card. The mayor of Queen Creek, Gail Barney, came and gave a short speech, and expressed his excitement for the new Harkins Theaters. Dan Harkins himself came down and spoke to the many people that came to the event! It was so neat to see lots of other people that I knew. There were gift bags for the VIP’s and they had some really neat things, like t-shirts and cups and tickets. I am so excited to have a Harkins Theater in Queen Creek!

61st Annual Parada del Sol!

Saturday was the Parada Del Sol parade, in Scottsdale. Friday we girls got together and had a blast putting together flower "bustles" for the horses.  Basically, we used a foam floral block and stuck flowers all over and then used wire to hold it on to the saddles.  They turned out great!  Halle had made one similar before so she guided us through it and it went together quickly.

Elsa was looking rather…dusty, so we washed her up and used special purple whitening shampoo stuff (I know, that’s really confusing: purple stuff to turn a white horse actually white.). We loaded her in the trailer at 6:00, and we got to Scottsdale around 6:50. I was really nervous about Elsa, because she gets really nervous at new places. We had to unload her on the road, because the police had closed off the traffic for the parade, and we weren’t sure where the actual staging area was. We unloaded right next to the sidewalk, and met up with the other 2014 girls, and we put in the amazing tail bows my mom made, and the really nice flower-arrangement-saddle things that Halle, Brittany, and I made. We tacked up, and I was very impressed how well Elsa was behaving. People started trickling through the sidewalks, and a few people asked for pictures with my horse. And with me. I was really excited to wear my new chocolate hat and teal-and-tan boots.

Shannon and Makenna caught up with us within half an hour and we waited for the parade to start. I was looking around, and I saw this little tiny trailer, and I thought it was for tools or something, but it was actually a mini trailer for mini horses! They were so cute, and they looked like little puffballs of adorableness! I also saw these huge parade balloons. One of them was a green piggy bank, and the other was some kind of kangaroo. While we were waiting, we saw these amazing Arabian costumes, and the horses were so beautiful, and the costumes were very sparkly! It was so cool to see all the other groups of people that came to be in the parade. 

We waited some more on the road, in line for our turn to go. Elsa was doing very well, she was just tossing her head a lot, and she only stopped when she was going forward. I was walking in circles for a long time before she stopped doing that!

The actual parade was really fun, too. I discovered that smiling and waving hurts…a lot. At least, after you’ve done it for about an hour. I was very tired afterwards, but we all had a lot of fun.

Earnhardt Grand Opening Promo Event

Yesterday was my first day promoting the rodeo actively, and I had so much fun! Halle, Brittany, and I walked around at the Earnhardt Dodge grand opening celebration (202 and Val Vista). We had a big stack of flyers and ticket vouchers to hand out to people. The event was amazing! There were bubbles everywhere for kids to play with, pony rides, a bull (Sorry, kids, no riding on that one!), lots of cars, and lunch was served! There were other booths, too, but I am not sure I remember all of them. There was face painting, I know that! The 2013 Rodeo Queen Court came to help us out, and we got a lot of flyers and tickets handed out! Lots of people asked for pictures with us, and all six of us were happy to!

 We sat down to enjoy some soft tacos and salad, but we ran into a very serious issue. We had no idea how to gracefully eat a very sloppy, very juicy, and very soft taco! Halle eventually gave up, but Brittany and I kept trying. Brittany decided to just gather all the corners of the tortilla together and eat it from the top, while I folded mine in half, then into a triangle. The salad, however, was a whole different issue! We didn’t want to stab through the foam plate, so we just tried sort of scooping the salad onto the fork, then balancing it across. Well, you can imagine how many failed attempts happened there…

After the Earnhardt promo, we went home for about 15 minutes to load our horses, grab our other outfits, and get over to the San Tans. A very close family friend, Arielle (not Ariel, like AR-EE-EL), came to help out with Elsa. Elsa is our new horse, and when I say new horse, I mean like, I’ve taken lots of lessons on her, but only have owned her since Monday. She is just the sweetest thing, but like everyone, she has her moments… like this one......  

She is also very well trained in Western Pleasure, and a little English. Elsa is living proof why no one should try to wash a WHITE horse with cold water when she has been used to warm baths! We tried everything, and she was not standing still! Like I said, she is usually so sweet! I am serious, check out that cute photo! 

 Anyways, when we got to the mountains, we parked and waited for the others to catch up with us. We found this amazing spot that had a bunch of different views of the mountain., Halle, Brittany, and I strapped on the chaps, but mine were too wide, and a little short. Poor Arielle tried and tried to get them to fit, but I think I might have been better off with Halle’s chaps! Eventually, we got them to stay on. J Elsa started dancing around as soon as she was out of the trailer. It was a new place she had never been to before, plus she had a new bit in. She danced and danced, and I was told to just stand and look pretty, but I have to tell you, it was very difficult not to get after her! Fortunately, for every thirty awful pictures, there was an occasional awesome one! 

 

The girls and I were having a lot of trouble walking in chaps. Let me tell you, walking in those is like walking in water! We tried holding them up, but that didn’t work, so we were stepping and kicking, and eventually became some weird dance, and somehow I know THOSE pictures will come back to haunt me later…. So we had a really good time making goofy faces at each other when it WASN’T our turn. Also, we discovered who had the best stink eye…which would be Brittany. 

Thanks to Maria from Dream Catcher Images who was very fun to work with and got some really amazing shots!  

New year, New adventure!

Hi! I’m Karlie, and my horse Scooter and I are super happy to be a part of Roots n Boots Queen Creek this year!

I have always looked up to the rodeo royalty. Even as a little girl, I ooh-ed and aah-ed over the “pretty ponies” in the parades, wishing I could have one of my own. When I was about six years old, my mom told me that I would be taking riding lessons. You can imagine my reaction to this amazing news! I joined 4-H three years later, and have been greatly enjoying it since!

 The couple weeks before the pageant, I was really nervous. I don’t think Scooter was nervous, but I was! I was to write and memorize a speech, study up on the history of Queen Creek, the rodeo, and parts of the horse, and practice hot laps (where the rider must run the horse around the arena, waving before coming into the middle) and flag runs (In this, the rider has to carry a flag while on horseback, and run a circle around the arena).

I used the Queen Creek website to study up on historical parts of Queen Creek, city limits, and history. I went to Horseshoe Park and Equestrian Centre to practice hot laps and flag runs. I also asked my 4-H friends to help me out, and we got together and swapped advice and information, since all four of us were competing.

I felt really good about the personal interview, since if there’s anything I know all about, it would be me! The other thing I was sure I had in the bag was the “Ag in the Classroom” teaching script. It just so happened that in the pageant, all of the 4-Hers got to be in the same group!

 The girls had to then give their speech, each category with a different topic. Mine was: What is your favorite part of the Roots ‘n’ Boots event? (By the way, that would be barrel racing for me!) After they gave the speech, they had to answer some impromptu questions. We all were more nervous than ever as we waited for the new Queen Court to be announced. I was thrilled to hear I would be the 2014 Roots n Boots Princess!

Now, Scooter and I prepare for the “Parada Del Sol”, the Parade of the Sun in Scottsdale. Hope to see you there!  Follow along with my blog to stay updated with our adventures over the next year!