By Taelor Evenson/Gator Galaxy Staff

In June, senior Taytum Dickman competed for the title of Miss Teen Rodeo Nebraska 2015 in North Platte during Nebraskaland Days. The event consists of a parade and several rodeo performances over the course of 10 days.

Dickman, along with three other young women, competed in the queen competition that consists of modeling, speech and horsemanship (horse control) competitions.

During the modeling portion, competitors have outfits that are color coordinated. Some wear jeans or leather dresses. Dickman wore stuff arena wear colors were navy/pink with silver stars.

The contestants do a quick change into another outfit and then do their speech. Dickman did her speech on Aspects Of NE, and wore a rodeo queen style dress(purple). The speech and modeling portions were held at Mid-Plains Community College. Then they went to Buffalo Bill Arena to compete in the horsemanship portion.

Dickman had to learn several figure eight patterns, then the judges choose which pattern the competitors perform with their horse. This is not only a lot of preparation and practice for Dickman, but also for her 8-year-old horse, Shaggy.

Once the scores have been  tallied, the competitors for Miss Rodeo Nebraska 2015 and Miss Teen Rodeo Nebraska 2015 come to one of the rodeo performances where the two queens are crowned. Dickman was crowned Miss Teen Rodeo Nebraska 2015 on June 17,2015 , alongside 22-year-old Miss Rodeo Nebraska 2015 Emily Taylor from Battle Creek, Neb.

“After I heard my name called, a big sigh of relief came over me, then excitement quickly kicked in,” said Dickman. “I couldn’t take all the credit I have to give some to Emily Taylor for helping me get prepared for this week.” Dickman said her favorite part of the experience was Horsemanship.

When you are given the opportunity to be queen, you are being given a huge responsibility. Now that Dickman has been crowned, her responsibilities consist of every PRCA rodeo, NSRA and mid-state rodeos, as well as other pageants.

Dickman said she is most excited about representing the state.