Standing in the arena last July, Mckensie Henson heard her first name called and for an instant believed she had won the 2015 Miss Teen Rodeo Oregon crown — until the judge called someone else’s last name. Then, she was just confused. It was one more glitch in a week that had been filled with them.
Not only were the odds of winning against her, the 16-year-old probably shouldn’t have even been there. All week she’d been battling a bug and her mother, Jeannie, worried the heat and humidity would be too much.
But it takes a lot more than the crud to keep this cowgirl down.
On the Thursday before the pageant, Mckensie packed up for Philomath. She had her make up and curlers, her outfit and hat and the months of practice she’d spent perfecting the patterns she’d need to ride with her horse, Blue. Now, all that was needed was to get Blue in the trailer and go. But Blue, so named for his beautiful peepers, is a bit of mares’ man.
“He is 16 hands, 1,200 pounds,” Jeannie said. “He is like the Disney gelding of the pasture. He’s got the high tail. He’s very charming. The mares are all just in love with him.”
On that particular day, the mares were out in the pasture, apparently flirting with Blue, who was having none of Mckensie’s plans. At one point as Mckensie tried to lead him into the trailer, Blue yanked the 5’5”, 120-pound teenager 10 feet off the ground and sent her flying. She landed in a heap on the gravel. Four hours later, Mckensie and her mom gave up and headed for Philomath, leaving Mckensie’s stepdad Adam to continue coaxing Blue. At 10:30 pm, he also gave up. It looked like all those months of work were for naught. At least with Blue.
But the rodeo crowd is a generous bunch and when word got out that Mckensie was without a ride, someone offered the use of their horse.
At 3 am on Friday, Mckensie climbed out of bed to primp and curl and tend to all the fuss required of a would-be rodeo queen. Meanwhile, Jeannie was spray painting her daughter’s boots. Not because they were the wrong color, but because they must be flawless.
“There is no dirt or dust,” Jeannie said. “It just has to be perfect. Your hair has to be curled a certain way. Your hat has to be pinned on.”
Finally, it was time.
“She is sitting at the gate,” Jeannie said, “and she tells me, ‘I have to throw up,’ and she is going in in two minutes. She is in her beautiful outfit and her hair is perfect and her hat is pinned on and she is going to get off her horse and go in the Porta Potty and throw up… I have no idea how she did it.”
But she did.
Now, back on the horse, a horse she had never ridden, Mckensie was ready to perform the patterns she’d practiced for so long.
Her ride, however, was not a show horse, but a gaming horse trained for barrel racing.
“Once I went into the arena, he basically bolted,” Mckensie said.
Or as Jeannie saw it, “When they opened the gate that horse just went flying. When it came around the turn, it would kick up gravel and spray us. This horse was just going like it was a race horse. It was scaring me. If she’d flown off…”
But she didn’t, though that seemed some sorry consolation prize.
“I definitely was a little bit bummed and hopeless,” Mckensie said. “I had a year of preparation and it was all kind of failing.”
She gave it her best shot anyway.
And on Saturday night, after the judge botched her name, he corrected himself, crowning Mckensie the 2015 Miss Teen Rodeo Oregon — the first ever from Lincoln County. The title comes with no cash prize, just honor and pride and the responsibility of traveling the state as a role model and rodeo ambassador.
And that’s where you come in. For $25, which will help pay Mckensie’s expenses, you can join her at the Saturday, Feb. 28, coronation dinner at Chinook Winds Casino Resort in Lincoln City. There’ll be live and silent auctions, a Western-style buffet and dancing to live music. More importantly, you’ll get to hang with the Oregon Coast cowgirl who’s proof rodeo queens are so much more than lipstick and powder.
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