Brittany Howard, current Miss MSU?Rodeo Queen, competed in the annual Miss Rodeo USA Pageant in Oklahoma City Jan. 19.

While ­she was not crowned Miss Rodeo USA, the Murray State senior, from Slaughters, Ky., did win the platform award during the pageant.

Howard traveled with her parents to Oklahoma City to participate in the Miss Rodeo USA pageant—her first ever experience with pageantry.

Although she was a pageant rookie, Howard is not new to rodeo.

Having barrel raced in local shows previously, she started competing in barrel racing with the Murray State rodeo team her junior year, and won the Miss MSU Rodeo Queen in April of 2013. The title gave her the opportunity to represent Kentucky in the Miss Rodeo USA Pageant in 2014.

“Although I started late in life rodeo queening, I knew there was no way that I could pass this opportunity up,” Howard said.

The pageant had different areas by which the contestants were scored throughout the week.

The contestants were judged based on their answers to both scheduled and impromptu interviews covering topics from their favorite superpower to current events, their knowledge of horses and rodeo and their practical horsemanship ability.

Knowledge of horses made up 30 percent of contestants’ scores, but appearance at public events also played a role.

Wherever the contestants went, the judges followed. The contestants were judged on clothing, beauty and figure along with their ability to communicate with sponsors and the public.

The contestants were asked to prepare speeches on a passion they had and their home state. Howard, who is training for her private pilot’s license, used the acronym S.O.A.R. (Success comes from Opportunities with a positive Attitude and Respect) to provide the basis of one of her speeches.

“I am currently a student pilot working to obtain my private pilot license, and I felt this platform shows that you can do anything that you set your mind to, even if that is flying an airplane,” Howard said.

This outlook bleeds into Howard’s opinion of the Miss Rodeo USA pageant.

Her favorite event in the pageant was visiting the Children’s Rodeo and signing autographs for the kids, she said.

“You realize at the point, or at least I did, that these kids look up to you and that you should be a positive influence and role model for them,” Howard said.

The positive influence should not stop when the pageant is over though, Howard said.

Howard said her favorite thing about not only the Miss Rodeo USA pageant, but also rodeo in general, is the friends made while competing.

The atmosphere of the pageant and the camaraderie of the contestants that went along with the pageant, allowed Howard to create friendships that she hopes to maintain throughout her life.

She said both her Murray State rodeo team and the other Miss Rodeo USA contestants have become a family.

Howard said the experience, for her, was a great one.

“I can honestly say there was hardly anything that I disliked about the pageant; it was all a wonderful experience that I was so blessed to be a part of,” Howard said. “But if I had to pick, I would say I didn’t like all the hairspray!”

She plans on continuing with rodeo after she graduates this May with a bachelor’s of science in agriculture.

Story by Amanda Grau, Staff writer