Bow down Drayton Valley, we are in the presence of rodeo royalty.
Last weekend Tawnie Thompson was crowned Alberta High School Rodeo Queen. Thompson is a Grade 10 high school student who started rodeo at the age of four. She competes in barrel racing, pole bending and goat tying.
Thompson has had the goal to become high school rodeo queen for a while now.
“I did a different queen competition prior to this about two years ago and I absolutely fell in love with queening. And it just became a really big goal to be the high school rodeo queen because I’d really like to be an ambassador and promote the sport of rodeo,” she says.
To become queen Thompson had to do a prepared speech, model, do a horsemanship pattern, take a written test, impromptus and a personal interview.
Thompson will now go on to Lincoln, Nebraska to compete as a queen for the national title. The national title would mean Thompson would represent both Canada and the United States as their High School Rodeo Queen.
Thompson especially looks forward to meeting new people this year.
“I love meeting new people, I’m a very social person so I’m really looking forward to all the opportunities that come with meeting new and more exciting people all over the place,” she says.
This year Thompson will also be able to make an appearance at the Calgary Stampede (Covid depending) and meet Miss Rodeo Canada.
Thompson has big dreams for the future as well, hoping to maybe go professional with rodeo one day.
“I would really like to go and be professional and get to travel internationally and go all over our beautiful province and see new things and see new arenas and compete against more people,” she says.
Thompson’s mom Aimee is especially proud and excited for her daughter saying “The life skills that she’s going to learn once she queens are going to be skills that she’ll get to take forward. I’m just eager to support her and take her where she needs to go. It’s exciting.”
