The Sweet Home Rodeo named Nicole Schrock its 2009 rodeo queen on April 11.
Five girls competed for the title, said Kellie Kem, a rodeo volunteer. They included Schrock of Corvallis, Meagan Treadway of Eugene, Tressa Turnbull of Lebanon, Rochelle Zamacona of Sweet Home and Trisha Olson of Bend.
“This is probably the first time in the history of the Sweet Home Rodeo queen competition that we had such quality horsemanship,” Kem said. “All the contestants rode very well, making that portion of the competition tough on the judges.
“These girls came with the experience it takes to represent the meaning of a cowgirl and queen. We were very honored to have these girls compete.
“Our winner was actually the 2007 Benton County queen, so she knows the ropes, and she was definitely the best candidate to represent Sweet Home Rodeo.”
She has experience with 4-H, and she was a member of the Corvallis High School equestrian team, Kem said. She also is a seasoned public speaker.
Schrock, 19, is the daughter of Jim and Kristi Schrock. She has one sister, Katie, who is a junior at Corvallis High School.
Schrock grew up in Corvallis and graduated from Corvallis High School. She is attending Linn-Benton Community College working on an associate’s degree in applied science and animal technology. Her focus is on horse management, skills she hopes to use to run her own horse business. She plans to transfer to Oregon State University.
“Horses have been a big part of my life,” Schrock said. Her family has always been involved with horses, and she started riding competitively her sophomore or junior year. She grew up around the Benton County Fair through 4-H. She knew everyone around the fair, and that led her to try out for queen there, as a way to give back to an organization that was there for her.
“It was lots of fun,” she said. “I really got hooked on it. I tried to go to everything I possibly could.”
She enjoyed the traveling and making new friends. Among the new friends, she constantly ran into Sweet Home Rodeo royalty. At the time, Larissa Bjornsen was rodeo queen, and Cera Kem was princess.
At equestrian meets, her stall was often located near Sweet Home’s, so she made friends with many Sweet Home people. Running for the Sweet Home Rodeo was almost a natural next step for her.
“Now it’s funny because she (Cera Kem) is the queen for Benton County,” Schrock said. “We’ll be traveling around together again. I’m really excited. It’s fun being involved with the rodeo, especially when you grow up watching it.”
Schrock rides Ringo, 15, a palomino-quarter horse, she said. She had done everything with him, from 4-H to high school equestrian competitions.
Schrock’s interest in horses is a bit different than the usual tale of growing up with them. Her early experiences with them were not positive, but that eventually changed, she said.
Her family actually started with miniature horses, she said. Curious people would constantly ask her about them.
“At a young age, I had to learn to talk in public,” she said.
She enjoys horses because they are powerful, talented athletes, she said. She played sports growing up, including high school basketball. She recalls running lines in practice and how difficult that is, and she noted how a horse can run all day.
“I was always kind of jealous,” she said.
Her favorite rodeo events are barrel racing because she’s competed in that one, she said. She also enjoys saddle broncs, which is one of the toughest events, and bull riding, which is the most dangerous.
The queen competition lasted four hours, starting with horse and tack inspection, Kellie Kem said. The horsemanship phase included a reining pattern, flag presentation and the queen wave.
That was followed by a knowledge test, which included naming Sweet Home Rodeo’s stock contractor, which is B-Bar-D, and explaining what a “dink” is. A dink is a horse or bull that doesn’t buck or meet its potential.
The contestants finished the competition with an interview, a speech and an impromptu question. Among those questions, they were asked to name Miss NPRA 2009, which is McKenzie Carr, and to explain what a barrel man is. The barrel man is another name for the clown.
They were judged on appearance, horsemanship, poise and knowledge. They received awards in several areas. Schrock won the awards for most photogenic, appearance and horsemanship.
Zamacona won a new one for the Sweet Home Rodeo, the Miss Rodeo Oregon Spirit Award, which is given by the Miss Rodeo Oregon Pageant. The award gives her a $95 scholarship to attend a Miss Oregon rodeo clinic next winter.
Judges were Julie Singer and Sharon Zucker, both Miss Rodeo Oregon certified judges, and Sweet Home Rodeo’s new queen coordinator, Bambi Wells.
“I think the other contestants did a fantastic job,” Schrock said. “It’s really hard to do what we do with tryouts.”
The process is grueling, from the horsemanship to the knowledge test, and just being able to compete, the other girls did a good job, she said. She also complimented last year’s queen, Cera Kem, for doing a great job promoting the Sweet Home Rodeo last year and helping with the tryouts this year.
Schrock also thanked the Sweet Home Rodeo.
The Sweet Home Rodeo is doing well going into the summer, Kellie Kem said.
Kem is a member of the Sweet Home Economic Development Group Board of Directors, which oversees the Sweet Home Rodeo, and is a longtime rodeo volunteer.
In its 65th year, the rodeo has lost some sponsors to the economy, she said, but it’s gaining new ones.
The economy has affected several NPRA-sanctioned rodeos around the state, causing some shutdowns, she said. “We’re just fortunate to have the support of a little town to help us put on Linn County’s only NPRA-sanctioned rodeo.”