Billings Horse Sale

It turned out to be yet another interesting weekend for me in Billings. I spent all of last week at home in Wolf Point with my mom and dad. We got to ride, work with colts and of course spend some quality family time. It was nice because I have been traveling so much that I haven’t been able to see much of my family this year; they always seem to be going the opposite direction as me!

On Friday of this last weekend we were headed to Billings for their monthly horse sale. My mom was selling her weanling colts and some mares and I was auctioning off a Toby Capp bronze for a fundraiser. It was going to be a crazy weekend and that’s exactly how it ended up. Since we were selling so many horses we had two trailer loads to haul. I hauled one load and my dad the other. I was driving the Miss Rodeo Montana pickup that my sister and I fondly call Forest. Well Forest didn’t make it to Billings unfortunately. Now the load I was hauling was pretty heavy but there were semi’s passing me up a hill about ten miles east of Miles City, so I knew something was wrong. I found a place I could pull over in the middle of nowhere and turned my pickup off. When I turned it back on it was blowing white exhaust. Not a good sign! Thankfully my dad was with me and I left it in his hands not knowing what to do. It wasn’t safe to drive so we had to leave the pickup with my name and Miss Rodeo Montana written all over it stranded on the side of the interstate. A few phone calls were made (thanks to the modern cell phone convenience) and one of my sponsors, Rathert-Fox Ford, drove all the way from Wolf Point to where my pickup was stranded to not only bring us a new pickup to haul the trailer load of colts to Billings but also towed Forest back to the shop in Wolf Point to get worked on. A huge thank you goes to Bill Rathert for going out of your way to help me and my family out. We got to Billings much later than we wanted to but at least we got there! I am just glad it happened when I wasn’t traveling alone!

Saturday was the horse sale and I helped my family prep the colts to sell and we all had a pretty good time. We sell our colts there every fall and it’s almost a tradition for us. With my brother and my sister both living in Billings now the whole Hardy family was together! I had a table outside the main entrance where I advertised my bronze and signed autographs. Thanks to BLS and Bill and Jan Parker for letting me do a fundraiser during their sale.

For an update on my vehicle situation, after a large number of people saw poor Forest either stranded or being towed and then parked at the shop, it’s not as bad as we first thought. I am still without a vehicle here in Bozeman and will probably be that way for awhile. But my pickup will be repaired soon!

Montana Fur Trappers Convention

This was definitely an interesting trip to Lewistown. Lorissa and I were scheduled to leave Bozeman to go to Lewistown on Saturday morning at 9. It didn’t really work out that way because as Lorissa will tell you, she had a bad Burger King experience that kept her feeling pretty ill that morning. Due to our late departure I drove the necessary speed it took to get us there as close to on time as we could while Lorissa slept off her flu. Luckily I made it there just about at the time we needed to be there and went to the Yogo Hotel where we were told the convention would be taking place this year. Lewistown was flooded with Choke Cherry Festival go-ers so we had to take a detour to get to the hotel. Once we got there no one knew anything about the Fur Trappers so we were left to find the Fur Trappers in the small town of Lewistown amidst all of the Choke Cherry people. Finally we discovered they were at the Fairgrounds and when we arrived…we were early! Whew, thank goodness!

The convention was filled with fun activities for all ages. They had trapping contests for men, women, and kids. Unfortunately, Lorissa and I didn’t get a trap setting lesson before we went and since we value our fingers we chose not to partake in that event. But there were some pretty fast times! We also got to see a beaver get skinned which was fascinating, once you got past the smell. The ever-so-famous skillet toss was pretty fun. The skillet wasn’t nearly as heavy as I thought it was going to be so we were able to throw it pretty far.

After the games and demonstrations was the fashion show and banquet. Lorissa and I got to model fur coats from Paparazzi Fur. The coats we modeled would be up for a drawing later in the evening. My favorite coat was a white sheared and bleached beaver; it was even featured in the magazine Vogue! Neither Lorissa nor I won the drawing but it was a lot of fun to wear the coats. After we helped with the live auction we left the fairgrounds and couldn’t believe that it was snowing! Thankfully for me, I didn’t have to drive in a snow storm the next morning. The hotel we stayed out was a little old but the room was very big. Good thing Lorissa and I like each other because it was one small bed for two queens! The room was very cold and neither one of us knew how to run the propane heater so for fear we would turn it on and gas ourselves to death we decided to bear the freezing cold and bundle up in whatever we had in our bags! Both of us made it through the night but we were both ready to be back in Bozeman on Sunday. I had a great time and I think Lorissa did too, even though it was quite an interesting day. Thanks to the Hebbe’s for being so generous to us all year and all evening. It was so nice getting to talk to them and listen to all of their fun stories!

Ellensburg, Washington

What a week! I was in Ellensburg, Washington for eight days for the rodeo and Miss Rodeo Washington pageant. They kept me pretty busy during my stay. I arrived on Sunday evening in time for the pageant pajama party where I met all of the contestants running for Teen and Miss. There were 4 in both categories and after spending a week with them I am pretty happy that I am not a queen in Washington. These girls were amazing.

The pajama party was fun as always and everyone should be proud to know that I took 2nd place in the Chubby Bunny competition, fitting six huge marshmallows in my mouth and still being able to mutter “I’m a chubby bunny!” The next few days were packed with pageant activities. I got to do a queen buzz during their horsemanship competition. Unfortunately, I was put on the horse that was rejected to the queen draw because he couldn’t carry flags. Little did I know he doesn’t like queen buzzes either because I soon as I got in the arena he immediately started bucking. I was able to ride him and keep waving at the same time so he must not have been bucking that hard. Later in the week we all had lunch at one of the Miss Rodeo Washington board member’s house. We were fed great all week but this lunch was special because Santa happens to have a workshop in Ellensburg and this is his busiest time of the year. He requested the rodeo queens to help out wrapping presents! He is definitely a busy guy but a smart one too for asking 10 or so girls help wrap Christmas gifts! We wrapped a ton and felt like we were a really big help.

The girls competing had the most amazing clothes provided by Riding High USA from right there in Washington. They were all dressed fit to compete at Miss Rodeo America and I couldn’t believe how polished they were. The style show was incredible. Their theme was “Pink Acres” and the association donated most of the proceeds to a local girl diagnosed with cancer. I even got to tell a joke during the Hee Haw portion of the show, “How many Montana State Freshman does it take to screw in a light bulb?” “None, that’s a sophomore course!” That was my only line and I nailed it! I was pretty proud of myself and even though my role was small, it was definitely a crowd pleaser!

The rodeo started on Friday and that was also the day of coronation. It was the closest pageant I have ever watched; the judges really had a tough job throughout the week. Congratulations to Mandy Melovich, the new teen, and Jessica Crouch, the 2008 Miss Rodeo Washington, they will both do an outstanding job next year. The rodeo in Ellensburg was pretty big and it attracted the top cowboys in the standings. Each day I felt like I was at Tour Finale rodeo because of the cowboys and also the stock. There were a total of 7 or 8 stock contractors who brought only the best bulls and broncs. The day of the finals I got to see the 3-time bucking horse of the year, Grated Coconut and his mom buck.

The girls and I rode in the huge grand entry and had a queen buzz every day. There were at least 150 people in the grand entries. We would enter at a fast lope and make it all the way around the arena and then slow down a bit, following the person in front of you, doing a serpentine pattern around 4 people stationed with American flags. I was very well mounted all weekend. Gary Rempel was a pickup man there so I rode his horses all weekend and during the parade. Sunday served to be an interesting grand entry for me. I was riding Gary’s horse Quizno and as we make our first buzz around the arena, my stirrup leather broke! The stirrup fell clean off into the arena dirt and my fender was hanging, slapping poor Quizno in the knee. He didn’t seem to mind at all and we finished the buzz and serpentine with one stirrup. Thank goodness Gary had another horse saddled for me to ride for my queen buzz after bareback.

I was amazed at how many people showed up to the parade on Saturday! It was the biggest one, by far, of the year…including Cheyenne. Ellensburg is a town of only about 30,000 people but Seattle is only 100 miles away and Spokane isn’t real far either. Labor Day is the official end to summer so now I progress my preparation for the Miss Rodeo America pageant. If you have any good impromptu questions, rodeo knowledge or something you think you can stump me on, I need all the practice I can get. Send ‘em on! Next week Lorissa and I go to Lewistown to visit the Montana Trappers Association. I am glad to be back in Montana!