NRA Finals ~ Billings

The NRA Finals were even bigger and better than I thought it could be.Ty Yost and his crew did an amazing job putting on the rodeo once again. The night started off with a full house and a fire works show, and it only got better from there! I was really excited to see my good friends Scott and Hannah Burlingham (Miss Rodeo Western MT Princess 2007).  For the first night of rodeo, Hannah was so generous to let me use her awesome horse Twister. However, it became a little bit hectic when Hannah and I had to switch off and on Twister while squished in a 10×10 with four other girls. But we made the best of it and had some good laughs too!

            On the second night of the rodeo my friend Hannah had the opportunity to carry Old Glory during opening ceremonies. And I was SO proud of her when she made the perfect run around the arena while our National Anthem played.

Besides the awesome rodeo action, I got the chance to see Little Big Town and Niel McCoy in concert after the rodeos. After listening to Neil sing “She’s a brick House,” I couldn’t help but dance around a little. Then, out of the corner of my eye I spotted Scott the rodeo clown carrying around what looked to be an animal of some sort. When I finally caught up to him I saw that he had one of the chickens from his act perched on his arm. I can’t say that I have EVER seen someone carrying a chicken around, but there is always a first time for everything!

Until the next rodeo rolls around in May at Arlee, I wish you all the best and I’ll see you around!

 

God Bless,

 

Jennifer Marshall

MTRM 2008

 

Great Rockies Sport Show ~ Bozeman

            This was an especially fun event for me because I had the chance to travel with Audrey Sholty, your 2008 Miss Rodeo Montana. The day was a pretty cold one, but we still managed to have fun as always. And of course, we were both beautifully outfitted in the finest of furs from the Montana Trappers as part of our awards.

Our first stop was the Montana Trappers Association booth where I met Jim and Fran Buell. Fran taught us about all sorts of animals, furs, and tracks. And I was loving life when I got to look through and touch all of the beautiful furs for sale in their booth. For the kids, they made rubber molds of all sorts of different animal tracks. We then got some “first hand experience” learning the animal tracks while we helped kids stamp the rubber molds on paper. By the time I was done, my fingers were completely black with ink! Thankfully, Fran remembered the baby wipes!

After that, Audrey and I headed into the sports show to take a look around for ourselves. We saw all sorts of vendors from western wear to safari tours to fishing gear. But one thing that I will never forget is getting to meet Brutus. Now Brutus isn’t your typical guy… he’s a seven foot tall, 500 pound grizzly bear. And when we saw him doing tricks for some marshmallows, we had to go check it out. When we got over to his cage, they had him rolling over on his back, standing up, and making that well known and very scary grizzly roar. However, he seemed very sweet… but you still wouldn’t be able to get me in there with him!

After that, we got on the road once again and headed back home. But until next time…

 

God Bless,

 

Jennifer Marshall

MTRM 2008