EPHRATA — There’s a new queen in Moses Lake, and she’s got Ephrata roots. 

Kaylee Stump, 20, of Ephrata was named the 2025 Miss Moses Lake Roundup in November. Stump, the daughter of Mike and Miranda Stump, is a 2022 graduate of Ephrata High School. Her coronation will be March 29, said Moses Lake Roundup Rodeo Board Member Amanda Miller. 

This is not Stump’s first rodeo, so to speak. She served the last two years as queen of the Last Stand Rodeo in Coulee City. Unusually, Stump didn’t grow up around horses and hadn’t ridden at all until a couple of years ago, she said. 

“About six months before the competition for the Coulee City rodeo, I hopped on a horse for the first time in my life,” she said. “The 2023 Miss Moses Lake Roundup, Annabelle Booth, is my best friend and she’s the one who taught me how to ride … She had mentioned that Coulee City was looking for their next queen and she thought I would really enjoy it. We could travel everywhere, and she could teach me everything.” 

Becoming a rodeo queen isn’t as simple as showing up and looking pretty on a horse, however. The process is very rigorous, Miller said. 

“We have a very extensive pageant,” she said. “They have to do horsemanship. They ride other people's horses, plus their own, through patterns. They have to carry a flag. They have speeches, they have modeling. They have to do fundraising prior (to the pageant) and we have an auction that evening. They have a knowledge test too, so they have to know their stuff.” 

“For six months I rode every single day in a tiny, little round pen,” Stump said. “I studied all of the ins and outs of the Last Stand Rodeo specifically, like how many awards they've won the past couple of years, what awards they've won, the dates of the rodeo, and then all the (Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association) rodeo knowledge that you could possibly know: rules, contestant standings, anything, and everything about horses as well. You get random questions like different diseases in horses. And public speaking was a huge one. I took a college class before I ran for the title to be more comfortable publicly speaking and being able to memorize speeches.” 

Stump has learned barrel racing and roping since taking the Last Stand crown, she said. It helped that her first horse, Tank, was very cooperative and well-experienced in barrel racing, she added. 

“Kaylee is going to do an amazing job,” Miller said.  

Besides her regal duties, Stump works at a coffee shop in Moses Lake and a restaurant in Ephrata. She’s planning to move on at the rodeo season to school in the Tri-Cities and become an esthetician, she said. But in the meantime, she’ll represent the rodeo to the best of her ability. 

“The face of the rodeo is essentially (a queen’s) role,” she said. “A lot of rodeo queens say (they) promote the Western way of life. That’s not my favorite phrase to use because yes, you are promoting that, but you’re more promoting rodeo itself … I think my role as a rodeo queen is to promote the Moses Lake Roundup itself and inform people about the sport of rodeo.” 

    Miss Moses Lake Roundup 2025 Kaylee Stump, center, in blue, is joined by visiting royalty from other local and regional rodeos at the rodeo queen pageant in Moses Lake in November.
  

    Miss Moses Lake Roundup Rodeo 2025 Kaylee Stump takes the microphone at the rodeo queen pageant in November. Stump is a 2022 graduate of Ephrata High School.
  

    Kaylee Stump of Ephrata rides out at the Last Stand Rodeo in Coulee City last year in her capacity as that rodeo’s queen. Stump has been named the Moses Lake Roundup Rodeo queen for 2025.