Now that I have a break after competing at the Miss Rodeo America pageant and before the New Year rodeos start, I realized I have a lot of blogging to catch up on! So I’m sorry that it’s going to get a little lengthy. In the month leading up to my trip to Las Vegas, I spent my time traveling, attending different events, and using any free time I had to prepare for the pageant. One trip was to Fort Worth for the National Cowgirl Hall Of Fame inductions. Marjorie Murphy and Frances Bendele made the road trip up there with me and I just love traveling with them! They fill every trip with laughter and fun memories so I always enjoy my time spent with them and can’t thank them enough for all that they do for me. Once we got there, we met up with Miss Rodeo Texas Teen, McKenna Greene, who I’m always excited to see! We saw many other familiar faces there like a few of our judges from the Miss Rodeo Texas pageant this year, members of the Miss Rodeo America organization, and several icons of the Western industry. This year’s inductees included Frances Kavanaugh, May Owen, Shirley Lucas Jauregui, Sue Cunningham, and Jean Cates. Congratulations to these inspirational women on their effort towards helping shape the American West and receiving such an honor! That night, we attended the “Catwalk in Cowtown” at the Texas Cowboy Hall Of Fame. McKenna and I were asked to model jackets at this benefit for DIFFA (Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS). This fundraiser consisted of denim jackets supplied by Wrangler that were custom decorated by different celebrities like Jewel, Nolan Ryan, Red Steagall, and Gypsy Soule among many others. We had a fun time at this event and overall, a great trip to Fort Worth.
I attended other events including the San Antonio Go Rodeo Roundup which is a large 
fundraiser for the S.A.L.E. Scholarship Fund. They have live and silent auctions, dancing, and music by Clay Walker (one of my favorite singers) and Johnny Lee who invited me on stage with him for a whole song! Unfortunately, as hard as he tried, he couldn’t get me to sing (which was actually pretty fortunate for the audience’s ears ;)) I can’t wait for the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo to start in February! A few days later, McKenna and I were in a fashion show for one of our wonderful sponsors, Dolores Unique Designs. We loved modeling her beautiful mohair designs at the Texas Sheep and Goat Raisers Association event in Kerrville and thank her for her continued support!
I was excited to join Billy and Brenda Harris when they invited me to ride horses with them and the Texas Heritage Riders at a parade in Devine. They ride gorgeous palomino horses with some of the most extravagant tack! I got to ride their wonderful horse, Jazz. He has carried so many Miss Rodeo Texas 
queens that he’s a professional by now 🙂 After the parade, Billy and Brenda took me to the Devine Fall Festival where we ate, danced with the Sawahe Indian Dancers, and they even introduced me on stage to talk about my year and upcoming trip to Las Vegas. I had an amazing time visiting Devine while getting to know the Harris’. Thank y’all for spending time with me and for always being such big supporters of the Miss Rodeo Texas organization. I appreciate y’all!
My last trip before Vegas was to Goliad for their PBR event. The weekend started off with a
Calcutta the night before the PBR to raise money by “auctioning off” bull riders. It was a good time getting to know everyone I would be working with that weekend and seeing the community’s excitement for bull riding. The next day started off with autograph signings at local sponsors and then it was off to the arena for some bull riding! The pickup men generously let me use one of their horses to ride in on and be introduced before the performance began. During the performance, I got to help with the mutton bustin’ and hand out awards throughout the night. Afterwards, there was a large Watusi that people could sit on and have their picture taken with. I could not pass up on this opportunity! A little girl in line wasn’t sure she wanted to ride until we offered for her to ride with me. I was so happy that she decided to get on with me and have our picture taken together. Thank you to everyone on the committee as well as Gary and Lana Jarzombek for being so hospitable and making sure I was well taken care of during my stay in Goliad. I loved spending time with your family!
Finally, it was time to head to the Miss Rodeo America pageant! My mom and stepdad left the day after Thanksgiving to drive my pageant wardrobe from New Braunfels all the way to Las Vegas. And let me tell you, they had a FULL car. They are really just the best supporters ever and I can never thank them enough for everything they do to help me. I love y’all!! Marjorie, Linda Ebest, Pat Bowen, and I flew together to Las Vegas. I really enjoyed visiting and spending time with them before the pageant week started, I couldn’t ask for a better support system. The pageant itself was everything I imagined it
would be and more! We got to model in such a fun fashion show, visit Cowboy Christmas, and even attend the first performance of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo which was one of my very favorite parts of the trip! I was so blessed that all of the other events went smoothly too; I drew good horses that could perform what I asked of them, all of my studying paid off when it came to the test and other questions asked throughout the week, and my favorite part was the interviews. I always love getting to know the judges and visit with them on a more personal level. I also had an amazing roommate, Brandy Mortensen, Miss Rodeo Utah. She was always so sweet and helpful and I am thankful to have spent the week with someone 
like her. I genuinely enjoyed myself at the pageant and was lucky to compete with such talented, funny, wonderful girls this year. I just loved them and I hope that I get to see them more in the future. I was so honored to win the Photogenic award as well as place third runner up. To even be able to place in the top 5 in such a tough competition of 32 girls was unbelievable and I am so grateful for that opportunity. Thank you all for your continued support throughout the year, it means a lot to me. I am so incredibly blessed to be in this position and still have six months filled with rodeos ahead of me. I hope to see you all down the road!
Blessings always,
Alex Ingram – Miss Rodeo Texas 2014
