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People of the Hills
• TAYLOR YOUNG |
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We often equate the bearers of our Ozarks culture with older people, the veterans of our lives.
And too often, that idea creates a barrier in our minds. It is the idea that only older folks are carrying the banner of our culture.
It is also the idea the younger generation is not picking that banner up: Lost in a future dominated by computers and pop culture, kids are simply leaving our heritage behind.
I would argue that idea is wrong.
And deep in the Boston Mountains near the War Eagle River, there’s a girl proving me right.
Taylor Young. Ten years old. Growing up in an Ozarks culture once dominated by horses and cattle, Young is already a rodeo princess. Just one year into competition, she is passionate in her riding abilities and equally passionate in sharing rodeo culture with everyone she can which is how our paths crossed last October when, in the midst of the War Eagle Craft Fair bustle, I sat down for an interview with Taylor and her mom, Tammy “TJ” Young.
How did rodeos get started here in the hills?
What does a rodeo princess do?
What kind of horsemanship skills do they need to develop?
And why all the sparkly clothes?
Taylor Young has the answers.
RODEO HISTORY
“They started off with just a few people coming and trying to train horses by riding them when they were bucking. Just started saddle bronc riding and the bulls I think they liked to ride just for fun. But they started rodeos as just a little hometown thing — and it started to become bigger and bigger.
“[Even today], there is a lot of people who have been asking me about what I won and how I got my crown.”
THE ROLE OF A RODEO PRINCESS
“The cowboys don‘t have a lot of time to talk to the reporters and the rodeo queens are taking face in the rodeo so they can talk to the reporters and tell them about the rodeo and they are the girls that get to go around in the audience and talk to the people. And promote [the rodeo] and get them to come back next year.
“It’s working out really good. I really like to talk to the people. It gets really interesting sometimes because they ask some questions that can be a little difficult. But it’s really cool.
“I talked to a lady from the Pea Ridge Times and she wrote about me in the newspaper. And I took my stuff to school and I was on my school broadcast. And I shared it at school.
“I lot of people think it’s just a beauty pageant. But it’s not! You have to put a lot of study time into it. You have to work hard. Like my friends think it’s just beauty pageant. ‘No, I can do this! I can do that!’ But when they get into it they’re going to see! That’s what I thought at first. I thought it was going to be a breeze boy, did it show me up.”
GETTING READY TO WIN
“Well, I had to give a minute-and-a-half speech and I had to go to the judges and have a personal interview with all three, the panel, and then I had to do horsemanship and modeling.
“And in modeling you have to wear a western dress that you model in front of the judges and then in horsemanship, you have reining pattern which includes different leads of a horse, pivots, roll-backs, and different speeds, four different speeds, walk, trot, lope, and run.
“They judge me [not the horse] on how I sit on the horse, how I control my horse. They have to make sure that you are able to control your horse.
“[All summer] I spent at least three or four hours practicing each night. Practicing and studying. So I’d know and remember.”
UNDERSTANDING HORSEMANSHIP
“If you’re riding just for fun, you don't have a particular way you have to sit. You just sit on your horse and go. But if you’re in a pageant you have to make sure your butt stays in the saddle. And tht you’re not bouncing and you’re not giving it a ‘chicken arm’ (which is when your arm bounces like a chicken wing).
“You cannot slouch. If you slouch, your horse will not do what you want it to do.
“A lot of horses, if you shift your weight in the saddle, they will go the other way. My horse Tater does not like to change leads very much. But if I shift my weight really hard, he will do it. And he’s a queen’s horse. So he’s getting better about it.
WHY ALL THE GLITZ
“Because rodeo queens have to get noticed and you get talked to. I like to talk to girls my age too and get them into stuff like this so they might compete next year.
“Yes, I have some friends at school who would like to do it. They’ve been talking to me about it and they want to compete next year.
GETTING NERVOUS
“I was really worried about horsemanship. That’s the biggest thing for me. Horsemanship is when you get on your horse and you have to execute a pattern. And sometimes you might forget something or you might do something wrong so that’s what really, really worries me.”
HARD WORK
There is nothing easy about participating in these rodeos, as Taylor’s mom TJ notes,
“They have to know current events, they have to know anything political from federal government down to local city government, for the state that they’re in. They have to know about the different events in the rodeo. They have to know champions from the year before. They have to know terminology, roping terminology, or barrel racing terminology. It's phenomenal. It’s a lot to cram into a 10-year-old’s head.
“She got a little tired of me handing her sheets of paper and going, ‘You gotta know this!’ But she spent her summer getting ready for it — Studying and she threw herself into it.
“Taylor got her love of horses and rodeo from her dad (a former bull rider) and I. (an Ozarks rodeo barrel racer). She comes by it honestly.
"It's a dying thing, though. Unfortunately, its like the Ozarks’ culture and history, it’s slowly dying out. They’re having to find new ways to get new people to come be exposed to it. Which is where these queens come in.
“They're going to things they’ve never gone to before, like a craft fair. And walking around and talking with people. They’re going to different kinds of trade shows. If it’s western at all, they are there.
“They are having to branch out and try to find ways to get people to go to these rodeos that might not go any other way. It’s getting challenging. But I’m so proud of every one I meet because they are finding ways to rise to the challenge.”
Cultural preservation is often an uphill battle. But with the work ethic of kids like Taylor Young, I think our future is in good hands.
— Joshua Heston
February 8, 2011
© StateoftheOzarks.net 2011
February 8, 2011
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TAYLOR YOUNG & WAR EAGLE MILL photo plates
Photo credits: J. Heston, Plates 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, War Eagle Farm, October 16, 2010. Plates 3, 5, 7 & 9, War Eagle Farm, October 17, 1009. State of the Ozarks © Archive.