The Oregon Queen — All the News of June 2023

July 14, 2023 Off By Lois Forester

2023 Miss Rodeo Oregon Zoe Brooks!!

The month of June flew by in a blink of an eye! I started off the month with a family trip to the coast. It was so nice to spend some much-needed time with family and relax by the ocean before the summer rodeo run started! From my coast trip I made it back home in time to have a photoshoot with my hometown photographer Shelby Snow! Shelby has graciously donated her time and photos to me since I began my rodeo queening journey. She also took my senior photos back in 2018! After my photoshoot I started my trek to a very long weekend.

First, I drove up to Union, Oregon for the Eastern Oregon Livestock show where I participated in a queen's luncheon, a grand parade and their fabulous rodeo performance! Thank you to the EOLS for being so welcoming and making my first time at EOLS so memorable. While I was there, I got to use a wonderful horse named Gus! I want to thank Courtney and her mom for allowing me to ride their horse and for their wonderful hospitality.

As soon as the Friday EOLS rodeo performance wrapped up, I made the 7.5 hour drive home to make it to my younger brother's high school graduation. I was so happy to be able to be there for my younger brother and cheer him on during such a big accomplishment. Right after graduation, I loaded up the truck and trailer and headed back to Central Oregon for the biggest little show in the world, the Sisters Rodeo! This was my first time at the Sisters Rodeo and boy, it did not disappoint. Their hospitality and kindness was so very much appreciated. Thank you to Sisters Rodeo for making me feel so important.

After Sisters Rodeo, I was able to spend 4 days home where I got to celebrate my 23rd birthday! It was so nice to be home and be with my family. From there I traveled south to the wildest richest rodeo in the west, the Reno Rodeo! This was an event I have been looking forward to all year. We were treated like royalty the whole week. From getting our very own Reno Rodeo PRCA sweatshirts, wonderful food and great hospitality, it was a week I will never forget. The highlight from my Reno Rodeo trip was experiencing the grand entry from the Reno Rodeo Stagecoach. Let’s just say I brought home some souvenirs of arena dirt.

The final weekend of June took me to Prineville, Oregon for the Crooked River Roundup! I cannot thank the Crooked River Roundup enough for welcoming me with open arms and treating me like I was part of the family! I was able to spend a lot of time with the Crooked River Round-up Queen, Mayzee, and Miss Rodeo America, Kennadee. My favorite parts of the Crooked River Round up were participating in the famous cattle drive down the streets of downtown Prineville and leading the Thursday night serpentine with Old Glory during the grand entry.

June was a month I will never forget! I am so incredibly thankful for this journey of being Miss Rodeo Oregon 2023! I can’t wait to share where I am headed in the month of July. See you then!

With Thanks,

Zoe Brooks

Miss Rodeo Oregon 2023

How fun is this photo! We have 2016 MRO Katie Shrock and 2018 MRO Jessi Jackson! Both ladies I have looked up to for years!

My four best friends treated me to a birthday dinner!

Meeting Amy Wilson in Reno was so special!

In the Virginia City Jail!

Miss Rodeo Mississippi and I got to interview all of the round winners 2 nights during Reno Rodeo!

Praying before the first Crooked River Round up Performance! Look at those Stringfellow Tailored Chaps!

Us gals got to climb on the top of a fire engine at the children’s rodeo in Reno!

2023 Miss Teen Rodeo Oregon Morgan Brownell!!

As May ended and June started, you could find me all the way across the country in the sunshine state of Florida! Although I was a little nervous to travel across the country and stay without my friends or family in a home with people I had just met, it turned out so much better than I could have ever hoped for! My host home Kalla made sure I was happy and comfortable my whole week's stay. I was roomed with our neighboring state Miss Teen Rodeo Idaho Ariana Long who was so much fun to be with!

I flew into Florida on Tuesday and relaxed till we had an early wake up to do a Rodeo presentation at the local retirement home where we got to tell them a bit about rodeo queens and the sport of rodeo! We demonstrated 3 rodeo events which included team roping, bull riding and my group's event, barrel racing! We then headed to the Silver Spurs Rodeo Arena to watch the horsemanship portion of the Miss Silver Spurs Rodeo pageant. The following day, we made our way to Melbourne Beach and I can now say I have been to both the east coast and the west coast!

Shortly after we got home from the beach, we were off to the Miss Silver Spurs pageant where we got introduced on stage along with being able to watch speeches and the crowning of the 2023 Miss Silver Spurs court! Congratulations to all the amazing girls that tried out!

Friday, we were off to Wild Florida where I got to experience air boat rides for the first time along with seeing wild alligators! Along with that while on our airboat rides we got to see a mama alligator with her nest of babies! Friday night we headed back to the Silver Spurs Arena where we greeted people as they came to watch the rodeo. We got to watch the rodeo a little ourselves and sign autographs at the end of the night!

Our last day together in Florida we went to Gatorland where we Zip-lined over alligators, got to watch them be fed and see all of the amazing alligators. One more night of rodeo followed and a week full of amazing memories for me to never forget! After being settled back at home for a week the horses and I were off again for another fun weekend. We were St. Paul bound for the first youth rodeo of the year where Chester, Custer and I competed in Barrel Racing, Pole Bending and Breakaway Roping along with doing run ins in grand entry and carrying the Oregon flag!

With love,

Miss Teen Rodeo Oregon

Morgan Brownell

2023 Junior Miss Rodeo Oregon Reegan Bills!!

The month of June was awesome and my horse liked it as much as I did.

We started out in St. Paul, Oregon for the first Northwest Youth Rodeo Association (NWYRA) appearance. It was fun to get to talk to the NWYRA court for pretty much the first time. I had two hot laps in 3 days. The really fun part was the rodeo events. My barrel runs were pretty unremarkable, and I knocked a pole on the second day, but it was still a blast. I got to really shine during my first Pole Bending run. Rocket was so happy to do something other than queen laps, so we just ran. It was exhilarating to run that fast. When the run was over I learned we got it done in 22.666 seconds, which placed 3rd in the juniors and was our new personal best! What was less fun was clothes lining myself to the ground on the awning arm of our trailer to go see results.

Later that night we celebrated my 13th birthday. I had a few friends at my camp for the celebration. We laughed, we joked, we ate cinnamon birthday cake I made the night before. We even played with glow sticks, which caused many jokes about not drinking the glowy Kool-Aid, aka glow stick liquid. That pretty much sums up the first NWYRA rodeo.

The only other thing I had rodeo queen wise was the second youth rodeo. So we made the trek to Canyonville. That rodeo was pretty much the same except that I made friends with the current NWYRA queen, Hallie Haslebacher, who is only a year older than me and a contestant for 2024 Miss Teen Rodeo Oregon! The thing I like best about Canyonville is the river across the street from the rodeo grounds. We got to go twice with two different sets of friends! Another great month down with more to go.

With thanks,

2023 Jr Miss Rodeo Oregon Reegan Bills