Traveling the beautiful roads of Texas!

Tejas Rodeo

After traveling and being on the road quite a bit, it was really nice to be back in the arena for some serious saddle time.  A special thanks to Tejas Rodeo for allowing me to come out and ride in their awesome arena and work with their team.  I look forward to coming out again soon.

 

Kendall County Fair and Rodeo

I was honored when I was asked to judge the Kendall County Queen Contest with two dynamite ladies that I respect very much, Karen Lloyd and Courtney (Warden) Billings (Miss Rodeo Texas 2000).  We had a great time getting to know the Kendall County Fair girls and taking a few moments to catch up in between events.  These are two very strong and capable women who give so much of themselves and have accomplished amazing things in their lives, so I felt privileged to be by their sides and have an opportunity to get to know them even better.

The Miss Kendall County Fair Contest has two age divisions and the girls made our job of judging very difficult.  They were all extremely capable of handling the job but as we all know, there can only be one winner and the SCFA has some great girls!  I am honored to have met all of these wonderfully talented, beautiful and intelligent girls and want to  Congratulate the winners! (Queen- Sterling Shrum, Princess – Tiffani Beck, Duchess- Emily Hare and Little Miss- Natalie Burkholder)

 

 

After judging the queen contest, I was very excited to be able to come back to attend the Kendall County Fair with the girls and have the opportunity to get to know them better.  Together we attended the open bull riding event as well.  The Kendall County Fair Committee and volunteers were awesome and welcomed me into their group with open arms!  I had so much fun being a part of this community event.   I want to thank Jenn with “Photos by Jenn” for taking some amazing pictures of all of us and allowing me to use them in this Blog and my scrapbook.  I appreciate you so much!

 

Cowboy Capital of the World…. Bandera Texas!

Recently, Bandera was officially declared the “Cowboy Capital of the World”!  What a privilege it was to be at their Labor Day celebration to commemorate this occasion with this awesome Texas community!

We started off the celebration as any good Texas town does – with a parade!  But the fun didn’t stop there…  Not in Texas!!!  The City of Bandera hosted a Circle of life PowWow, Mounted Shooters & Wild West Show in addition to streets filled with Arts, Crafts, Food, Music and good ole Texas Fun!  I’d like to extend a formal “Thank YOU” to Billy and Brenda Harris for providing me with a gorgeous palomino horse to ride.

It was an honor to be in the parade with Billy, Brenda and the Texas Heritage Riders who won 1^st place Western Mounted/Horse Drawn entry in the parade.  They are a wonderful group of people and I enjoyed getting to meet them and appreciate being included in this historic event.

I also attended the National Professional Bull Riders Challenge that evening.  I enjoyed meeting their event Committee and volunteers along with many of the great people of Bandera.  It was especially nice to run into the Perry family, who have been lifelong friends of my family.  Thanks for coming out to see me!

25^th Annual National Cowboy Symposium and Celebration, Lubbock

One of the wonderful things that I get to do as Miss Rodeo Texas – is travel this amazing state of ours and experience all the unique and wonderful things that it has to offer!  This time I had the pleasure of traveling out West to Lubbock for the Annual National Cowboy Symposium and Celebration.   I have been to some wonderful western events before but Lubbock really does an outstanding job of educating the youth and supporting our Western Heritage.  From Cowboy Poetry, to Western Art, Western Musicians to Chuck wagon cook offs and Native American Tee Pees to equine demonstrations with Craig Cameron…. The Cowboy Symposium covered it all!

One of the highlights of my visit was the opportunity to join some of the elementary classes as they took their tours.  Kids are so honest, blunt and funny!  One little girl named Kinley especially touched my heart and made my day.  Days like this are confirmation that what we do and who we are as Rodeo Queens and Role models is still important and we can make a difference in the future of the sport and lifestyle that we all love.

In addition to the children’s awards, I had the honor of assisting with the American Cowboy Culture Awards.  The King Ranch, Waddie Mitchell and the PRCA represented by Karl Stressman were just a few of this year’s recipients.  I was also surprised by Mr. Alvin Davis (one of the founders of the Lubbock Symposium) when he awarded me with the “Head of the Class Award”.  Such an honor!    I would like to personally thank Ms. Monica Hightower, Mr. Alvin Davis and his family for their hospitality during my stay in Lubbock.  Thank you for making me feel at home and taking care of me like one of your family!

I was very happy to see our MRT Princess, Kate Johnson at the Parade and have her join me for the children’s award ceremony.  Kate is doing a fabulous job as MRT Princess in her quest to make 52 appearances during her year.  Thanks to Melissa for taking pictures of us! The whole Johnson family has been a wonderful extended family for me and I always love to see them.  I truly appreciate that they are the first ones to jump in to help whenever I (or anyone else) need them!  Once again, it’s all about the people we meet and relationships we build along the way that build a life and make the memories!

 

I highly recommend that you check out the Lubbock Cowboy Symposium website at www.cowboy.org to see everything you missed and make plans to attend next year! If you love Cowboys, BBQ, Rodeo, Horses and the Western way of life…… You will love it!

 

Thank you for continuing to follow this blog as well as following Hannah, Kate and I on Facebook.  I hope that somehow it allows you to feel like you are a part of our team and on this journey with me, because in a very real way – you are! I couldn’t do any of this without the amazing support, kind words of encouragement and the “Texas Love” that I receive from my friends, family, our wonderful sponsors and the supporters of the Miss Rodeo Texas Organization.  Texas is my family and no matter where I go, I know that “Deep in the Heart of Texas” will always be home!

From San Antonio and the Road~

Stephanie Revels, your 2013 Miss Rodeo Texas