LINCOLN -- Emma Parker attained her goal in becoming Lincoln Riding Club Princess, and now she says she can't wait to represent her club at the Miss Rodeo Arkansas pageant in November.
Emma, 9, daughter of Jessie and Bryce Parker of Farmington, was crowned Aug. 14 during the 68th annual Lincoln Rodeo.
Emma currently attends third grade at Bob Folsom Elementary in Farmington. She has been riding horses since she could sit up and began competing in play days, barrel races and rodeos when she was 4 years old. Emma is a member of Cove Creek Clovers 4H, where she shows hogs and goats, and is an active member at Prairie Grove Christian Church.
The Princess pageant was open to young ladies between 8 and 12 years old. Emma put a lot of time into preparing for the pageant, and she shined throughout a full three days of competition involving horsemanship, interview, appearance, speech and congeniality.
Emma got to hear the experiences from many former rodeo queens Aug. 13 during a fashion show at Possum Holler in Morrow. Emcee Faith Smith spoke of working with stock contractors while touring as rodeo queen. She acknowledged the rodeo personnel are really good at what they do but said they didn't have the best communication.
"So a lot of times if you didn't know what you were doing, you just sat in the back of the arena and pushed up cows, and then whenever somebody yelled at you to get out of the way, then you got out of the way," Smith said.
She encouraged contestants, telling them, "Eventually, by the end of your year or by your next title, you got it figured out, and it was really cool getting to know those guys [pickup men] and learn from them because they do that full time."
"It's amazing to think about the lifestyle to be able to go around with contractors and to work in the rodeo on a weekly basis," Smith said. "It was just phenomenal, and it was so cool getting to learn from those guys and getting to know them, and I'm very blessed and proud to know a lot of those guys."