Laramie, Wyoming’s Madelaine McElwee represented Wyoming at the Miss Rodeo America Pageant in Las Vegas, Nevada to compete for the Miss Rodeo America (MRA) 2023 title from Nov. 27 to Dec. 4, 2022.
The Miss Rodeo America Pageant might seem like just a beauty pageant; however, the Miss Rodeo America is a scholarship foundation and the individuals are competing for the job of Miss Rodeo America 2023.
The contest consisted of four competitions; personality, horsemanship, speech and appearance. To start off the week there were personality interviews for each of the 28 contestants, each a representative of one of 28 states in the U.S.
Following the personality contest was the horsemanship contest. The horsemanship contest involved each contestant doing a small reining pattern and a fly-by. A fly-by is when the Rodeo Queen performs a signature move where they ride the horse around the arena while waving at the crowd. McElwee was in the second round of horsemanship on Tuesday, Nov. 29. The horsemanship contest was open to the public to watch but video coverage and photos were not allowed.
The third day of competing focused on speeches. Each contestant was given a topic to write a three-minute speech on. There were multiple speeches given throughout each day by the contestants and the topics were based on relativity of personality or advocating for agriculture.
An example of one is each contestant was given the same list of songs and had to pick one that related to them the most and why it did.
After the extemporaneous speeches were done, McElwee and the rest of the contestants had horsemanship interviews.
The fourth day in Las Vegas, Thursday Dec. 1, was more horsemanship interviews and a fashion show rehearsal. It was also the start of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo (NFR) which is also held in Las Vegas, so each contestant got to spend their evening at the Welcoming Ceremony for the NFR 2022 and watching the live stream of the ten day rodeo championship.
For the appearance segment of the MRA Pageant on Friday, Dec 2, a fashion show was held. McElwee wore a maroon dress as she waltzed down the carpet.
Saturday, Dec 3 was a day of rehearsals and preparing for the new MRA coronation and rewards ceremony that was held on Sunday, Dec 4.
Madelaine McElwee may not have won any of the competitions at the pageant, but Wyoming is still proud that she represented our state.
