First and foremost cowgirls
CHARLES H. FEATHERSTONE | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 3 years, 1 month AGO
Annabelle Booth, Miss Moses Lake Roundup 2023, looks back at the judges as she finishes riding a pattern with the Moses Lake Roundup flag during Saturday morning’s horsemanship portion of the Miss Moses Lake Roundup pageant. Booth was formerly Last Stand Rodeo Coulee City 2019.
Charles H. Featherstone
Miss Moses Lake Roundup contestants Annabelle Booth (left) and Alexis Shoults talk as they prepare to compete during the pageant’s horsemanship round on Saturday morning.
Miss Moses Lake Roundup contestant Alexis Shoults prepares to unbuckle her horse’s bridle and speak with the judges as part of the pageant’s horsemanship competition on Saturday.
Outgoing Miss Moses Lake Roundup Brianna Kin Kaid crowns Annabelle Booth as Miss Moses Lake Roundup for 2023.
Miss Moses Lake Roundup contestant Milie Cobb demonstrates her horsemanship skills on Saturday morning.
Miss Moses Lake Roundup contestant Jenna Penrose buckles her horse’s bridle following a series of questions from pageant judges.
Miss Moses Lake Roundup 2023 Annabelle Booth during the horsemanship portion of the rodeo’s pageant on Saturday.
Annabelle Booth (left) and Jenna Penrose (right) ride the rail as part of the Miss Moses Lake Roundup pageant’s horsemanship competition on Saturday.
Outgoing Miss Moses Lake Roundup Brianna Kin Kade (left) poses Saturday for a group photo with competitors to succeed her Annabelle Booth, Alexis Shoults, Jenna Penrose and Milie Cobb.
Contestant Jenna Penrose after finishing riding a pattern as part of the horsemanship portion of the Miss Moses Lake Roundup competition on Saturday. Penrose won the pageant’s congeniality award.
Miss Moses Lake Roundup 2023 Annabelle Booth during the horsemanship portion of the pageant on Saturday at the Harwood Pavillion.
Contestant Milie Cobb of Ephrata zips up her coat following a warmup exercise during the horsemanship portion of the Miss Moses Lake Roundup competition on Saturday. Cobb was second runner up.
Outgoing Miss Moses Lake Roundup Brianna Kin Kade (left) and contestant Jenna Penrose sit on the horses and talk outside the Harwood Pavillion at the Grant County Fairgrounds during the horsemanship portion of the Miss Moses Lake Roundup pageant on Saturday.
MOSES LAKE — Annabelle Booth said she was a great deal more confident going into this year’s Miss Moses Lake Roundup competition than she was in 2021.
“I ran flags for the Moses Lake Roundup and this is my second year running for Miss Moses Lake Roundup queen,” said Booth, 23, before the roundup’s annual queen pageant on Saturday. “I’m definitely more prepared than I was last year, and I knew exactly what to expect.”
Booth, who was Miss Last Stand Coulee City Rodeo in 2019, was one of four contestants — along with Milie Cobb, 19, of Ephrata; Jenna Penrose, 20, of Moses Lake; and Alexis Shoults, 19, of East Wenatchee — vying to wear the crown of Miss Moses Lake Roundup 2023. The four young women spent the day riding patterns on their own and other contestants’ horses, giving speeches, being interviewed by judges and answering questions about their favorite part of the Moses Lake Roundup and what they would do if they were thrown from a horse during a rodeo.
“I’d get back up and say ‘rodeo on!’” Booth told pageant emcee Emma Gunderson, herself a former Miss Moses Lake Roundup in 2017.
It paid off for Booth this year, who will wear the crown, the sash and the belt buckle of Miss Moses Lake Roundup 2023. Shoults was named first runner up and received the pageant’s horsemanship award, while Cobb was named second runner up and Penrose received the rodeo’s congeniality award.
“It feels very surreal at the moment,” Booth said following the pageant. “I’ve been working for this for a long time. I’m looking forward to getting started.”
Booth will commence her official duties as Miss Moses Lake Roundup on Jan. 1, 2023, at the Coulee City Last Chance Rodeo banquet on New Year’s Eve along with current Roundup Queen Brianna Kin Kade. There Booth will kick off a full year of fundraisers, banquets and rodeos as the official representative and ambassador of the Columbia Basin Rodeo Association.
“I’ve traveled statewide and I’ve also traveled to Idaho to a few rodeos and events,” Kin Kade said. “My job is to represent the Columbia Basin Rodeo Association and the Moses Lake Roundup and bring people to our community and to show people the Western way of life in rodeo.”
Kin Kade added that when she doffs the sash as Miss Moses Lake Roundup, she’s going to spend some time preparing to compete next year in the Miss Rodeo Washington competition.
“It’s a higher level of competing,” she said. “You not only have to study rodeo knowledge and veterinary terms for horses, cattle and everything in between, but you have to study politics, current world problems, you have to know all of your tack, you have to competitors, cowboys, cowgirls, world standings, rules.”
“Everything that has to do with rodeo in the world as a whole is something you have to have knowledge on,” she added.
It’s a lot of work, Kin Kade explained, but it can pay off hugely if you win.
Audrey Ramsden, one of this year’s judges and herself a former Miss Moses Lake Roundup, said while horsemanship is a huge part of being a rodeo queen, being a confident public speaker, representative and even salesperson is a significant part of the job as well. In fact, Marsden said, the pageant prepared her for her current job as a lobbyist for the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America in Denver by giving her the ability and confidence to get out, meet people and attempt to convince them of something important.
“When you’re out there talking to folks and, you know, grabbing a senator in the hallway to talk about your issues or whatever you’re trying to advocate on, it’s helped me in my career, in public speaking, in research, all of it,” she said.
Booth said one of the things she wants to do as rodeo queen is get the rodeo more involved in the actual Grant County Fair.
“A lot of the kids that we talk to and see are 4-Hers,” she said. “And the rodeo is not really a part of the fair. So, that’s my big step, I want to build that bridge and just get over there and help those kids and be there for them and be a role model.”
It was a sentiment echoed by each of the queen contestants, the desire to be the person in the ring the children attending could look up to.
“Being a role model for the younger generation,” said Cobb, who grew up on a cattle ranch near Ephrata and wants to teach agriculture. “They’ve always been a big impact on my life, and I want to be that impact for younger generations.”
Current Miss Rodeo Washington Lexi Hibbs — who will be competing in the Miss Rodeo America pageant in Las Vegas in late November — reminded everyone attending the Saturday pageant that while all of the knowledge, speech-making, question-answering, role-modeling and congeniality were important, there’s only one real reason young women vie to become rodeo queens.
“We are first and foremost cowgirls,” she said.
Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at [email protected].
ARTICLES BY CHARLES H. FEATHERSTONE
Potato prices up, sales down for first quarter 2023
DENVER — The value of grocery store potato sales rose 16% during the first three months of 2023 as the total volume of sales fell by 4.4%, according to a press release from PotatoesUSA, the national marketing board representing U.S. potato growers. The dollar value of all categories of U.S. potato products for the first quarter of 2023 was $4.2 billion, up from $3.6 billion for the first three months of 2022. However, the total volume of potato sales fell to 1.77 billion pounds in the first quarter of 2023 compared with 1.85 billion pounds during the same period of 2022, the press release noted. However, total grocery store potato sales for the first quarter of 2023 are still above the 1.74 billion pounds sold during the first three months of 2019 – a year before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the press release said.
WSU Lind Dryland Research Station welcomes new director
LIND — Washington State University soil scientist and wheat breeder Mike Pumphrey was a bit dejected as he stood in front of some thin test squares of stunted, somewhat scraggly spring wheat at the university’s Lind Dryland Research Station. “As you can see, the spring wheat is having a pretty tough go of it this year,” he said. “It’s a little discouraging to stand in front of plots that are going to yield maybe about seven bushels per acre. Or something like that.” Barely two inches of rain have fallen at the station since the beginning of March, according to station records. Pumphrey, speaking to a crowd of wheat farmers, researchers, seed company representatives and students during the Lind Dryland Research Station’s annual field day on Thursday, June 15, said years like 2023 are a reminder that dryland farming is a gamble.
Wilson Creek hosts bluegrass gathering
WILSON CREEK — Bluegrass in the Park is set to start today at Wilson Creek City Park. The inaugural event is set to bring music and visitors to one of Grant County’s smallest towns. “I've been listening to bluegrass my whole life,” said the event’s organizer Shirley Billings, whose family band plays on their porch every year for the crowd at the Little Big Show. “My whole family plays bluegrass. And I just wanted to kind of get something for the community going. So I just invited all the people that I know and they’ll come and camp and jam.” ...