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Looking back, I can still remember the day I was crowned "Mountain Rodeo Queen", but to tell the story properly, I'll have to start at the beginning...

When I was 10 years old, some good friends of my parents helped to get me in to the world of "Horse Shows". My parents purchased me my first Arabian mare when I was 11, and by the end of that year I was competing in Regional and National level shows all around our home in Southern California, as well as across the Western United States. Now, the important thing to remember about this story's introduction is the following "overview" of what a "Class A Breed Horse Show" is all about...horse trailers are more expensive than most people's automobiles, horses are clipped, shaved, groomed, wrapped and bathed for hours at a time, and people, in general, have a fairly high opinion of themselves. While my family was never "rich", and we only showed on a shoe-string budget, you would have never known it based upon our equipment, my "show clothes" and the presentation of my horse.

During the first months of my Sophomore year in high school, my father got a job transfer that took us from the urban concrete jungle of Southern California (where I had lived all my life) to a little 5-acre ranch in the hills near Fresno, California. When I say I was in "culture shock" from the moment I arrived, I am not exaggerating. My entire first month of school was spent trying to convince people that just because I "showed horses" did not mean that I was a "cowboy", and just because I didn't want to be labeled as a "cowboy" (one of the requirements being a wardrobe that consisted of nothing more than Wranglers and boots) did not mean I had anything against those people who chose to be part of that group. Basically, I didn't fit in anywhere...I was a round peg that just wouldn't fit in any of the very square holes around me.

My mother came up with the idea when I turned sixteen years old. "It would be good for you to get into something like this and I'm not taking 'no' for an answer!" It was settled before I had a chance to object...I was running for the coveted title of "Mountain Rodeo Queen".

The contest consisted of several group activities, including selling raffle tickets, appearing on the local news station, answering phones for a local "telethon", and promoting the annual "Mountain Rodeo", but the deciding factor as to who would wear the crown was a competition on horseback. From the beginning I had no doubt that my skill and talent

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