Nevado Jones had a lot to juggle with at the 77th annual National High School Finals Rodeo in Rock Springs, Wy.
As if it wasn’t stressful enough to be the Miss BC High School Rodeo Queen, representing all of British Columbia among 42 other contestants from Canada, the United States and Mexico vying for the national crown, the 17-year-old from Prince George also had to take care of business competing in two of her bread-and-butter rodeo events.
Jones qualified for the Super Bowl of high school rodeo in breakaway roping and pole bending and with that came the added responsibility of getting three horses — Cello, Owen and Gordon — ready to ride.
“It made for a little bit more chaotic of a week with so much on my plate but it was still a great experience,” said Jones, who won a saddle as BC reserve champion in breakaway and was sixth in the province in pole bending.
Judging to determine a rodeo queen is based on several elements, including horsemanship and the ability follow commands riding a pattern in the arena that includes circles, stops, backups and rollbacks.
Each contestant is required to give a two-minute speech and points are awarded based on how they present that speech. Modelling is another of the requirements and contestants are judged on the confidence and grace they show as well as audience engagement. They also earn points based on how they respond to an impromptu question and for their overall appearance.
Jones was one of four competing for the Miss Rodeo title at the BC High School Rodeo Finals in Quesnel and winning it was an unexpected bonus for Jones, who comes from a three-generation family of rodeo contestants.
“It was completely new to me in this last year,” she said. "It was something my sister tried and I always had an interest in it but didn’t know how far it would take me.
“I think the toughest part was just balancing the switch between having to do my queen stuff and being a competitor – definitely some long days and late nights because there’s so much to fit in.”
The national finals drew more than 1,700 competitors and crowds of between 6,000-12,000 people for each go-round.
She had a chance to get to know some of the other rodeo queen contestants at planned events throughout the week (July 13-19) and got her first taste of celebrity status.
“It’s so amazing to meet so many people and we all have a love for rodeo. We were competing against each other but we were also friendly as well,” said Jones.
“We had some meet-and-greets with fans and during the rodeo we had autograph signings. That was different, I’d never signed an autograph sheet and it was cool to have that experience. All the little kids that came up looked up to us.”
Breakaway is a timed event in which riders chase after a calf released from the chute and rope it around the neck. The other end of the rope is tied with a string to the saddle horn and as it tightens with the running calf the string breaks and that stops the clock.
”Breakaway is definitely my favourite event, I have a great team of horses for it and it’s something I grew up doing,” said Jones. “Cello is my main horse, he’s just super-reliable and great fer the setups we have in BC. We’re in a lot of indoor (arenas) so he’s really good for scoring there big outdoors he likes to run hard and out me in my spot every time.
“Owen is my backup horse. He’s a little more of a stronger runner so when I draw a calf that likes to run fast I go on him, and my sister’s breakaway horse, Gordon, is the one I used at nationals.”
Breakaway’s exposure grew by leaps and bounds when a national TV audience tuned into the 10-day Calgary Stampede in the early July. This year it became one of the major rodeo events at the Stampede and the inaugural champion who won a $50,000 prize is Calgary native Shelby Boisjoli-Meged.
“Unfortunately I couldn’t watch the Calgary Stampede on my phone, I just watched little snippets of it on Instagram or Facebook and it was so cool to see a Canadian cowgirl, especially one in her hometown rodeo, being such a big rodeo, win that first-ever Calgary Stampede in breakaway roping.
“A lot of people do that for a living and that’s their main passion. It’s really amazing, especially as a young breakaway roper to know that it’s evolving so much and there’s so much out there for me in the future.”
Jones has been roping almost since she started walking, practicing her swings on dummy calves for Little Britches rodeos.
Her mom Christine, her dad Darin and sister Fallon all compete in roping events. Fallon, 20, is in her third year attending Idaho State University on a rodeo scholarship. Her aunt Sandra Suter is a former Canadian champion and multiple World Series team roper and her grandfather Garry Suter established a long history as one of the province’s top team ropers.
Jones has been invited to compete in there events (breakaway, pole bending and team roping) at the Canadian Youth Rodeo, Championship, Oct. 2-5 in Edmonton.
She’ll team up with Kenzie Lloyd of Quesnel for the team roping competition.
Jones missed her hometown rodeo in mid-June while competing in the provincial high school finals in Quesnel but will get to compete in the BC breakaway championships during the BC Northern Exhibition, Aug. 16-17.
She’s spoken to a few college recruiters and next year plans to attend a U.S. junior college to study health sciences and biology, working towards a medical radiography technology degree after she graduates from Prince George Secondary School.
