Bozeman woman could be first Montanan to wear Miss Rodeo America crown

By JIM CNOCKAERT Chronicle Staff Writer

Megan Hardy recognizes that she's bucking history in her bid to become the next Miss Rodeo America, but she prefers to see it as an opportunity to make history.

In more than 50 years of pageant competition, no Montana woman has ever won the Miss Rodeo America title. But Hardy, a Montana State University senior who was crowned Miss Rodeo Montana last January in Great Falls, believes there has to be a first time.

She's not suggesting that somehow she's the right person at the right time. It's just that, having realized her childhood dream of becoming Miss Rodeo Montana, she's convinced that anything is possible.

"I have thought a lot about it," she said. "It would be very cool to be the first woman from Montana to win."

Hardy, 23, a Wolf Point native and Bozeman resident, is one of 27 cowgirls who will compete Dec. 1-8 in Las Vegas to become Miss Rodeo America 2008. The winner serves for a year, touring the country as the official spokesperson for the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. The pageant is a prelude to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, the PRCA's year-end championship, scheduled Dec. 6-15 in Las Vegas.

The middle of three children, Hardy was 6 when she first saw Miss Rodeo Montana at the hometown Wild Horse Stampede, the oldest professional rodeo in the state. Accompanied by her older brother because she was too shy to ask, Hardy was able to get the young woman's autograph. In that moment, Hardy said, she began to dream about winning that title.

"I just remember seeing her on her horse, and she looked so beautiful," Hardy said. "I really looked up to that. At that age, you really do see the glamour part. Later, when I began to understand more of what she stands for, how she represents rodeo and the western way of life, it made me want to win the title even more." Contestants are judged during the Miss Rodeo American pageant in the major categories of personality, appearance and horsemanship. Each young woman must demonstrate her skills in public speaking, personal interviewing, horsemanship, knowledge of rodeo and general equine science, as well as her current event awareness.

It is an intense marathon, Hardy said, made all the more difficult because the number of contestants makes it difficult to stand out. To win her Montana title, she had to beat only two other contestants.

Still, Hardy said, she believes she is ready. She competed twice before winning Miss Rodeo Montana, and said both experiences were valuable. She also attended the Miss Rodeo America pageant last year and got a sense of what the competition will be like.

She's consulted many former Miss Rodeo Montana winners, asking about their Miss Rodeo America pageant experiences and what they learned from them. She's also participated in several simulated pageants, trying to become more comfortable in situations and settings she might encounter in Las Vegas. Last weekend, for instance, she was back in Wolf Point for what she described as a send-off party. But much of it involved family, friends and townsfolk grilling her on all sorts of topics.

"You really have to be prepared for anything," she said.

Maybe the most challenging question she was asked last winter during the Miss Rodeo Montana was whether she believed the United States was ready for a woman president. She said no at the time, saying that many people were still adjusting to seeing women in powerful business positions.

"To have a woman in the ultimate position of power ... I was not certain whether America was ready for that," she said. "But that was a year ago. If I was asked that now, I might change my mind. I think America is looking for a change now, and a woman president might be that change."

Now, Hardy also has nearly a year of experience as Miss Rodeo Montana. That involved attending nearly every one of the state's 28 PRCA rodeos. She also attended big rodeos in six other states, such as Cheyenne (Wyo.) Frontier Days and the San Antonio (Texas) Stock Show, as the representative of Montana rodeo. And she traveled internationally - something Miss Rodeo America does not do - first attending the Calgary Stampede in July, and then in October accompanying a delegation promoting the Montana beef industry to Japan.

“People in Japan are fascinated by rodeo, and I felt like the president everywhere I went," she said. "One time, while I was answering questions during a television interview, I looked up at the monitor. They weren't filming me. They were filming my boots. The people there are fascinated by everything cowboy."

As prepared as she believes she is to handle any question fired at her during the Miss Rodeo America pageant, Hardy can't answer this one: Why hasn't a Miss Rodeo Montana ever won the title?

Neither can two Montana women who have competed in the pageant, including a former Miss Rodeo Texas who became Miss Rodeo America. Both said they believe young Montana women are at a disadvantage because they do not have as much pageant experience as their competitors from other states.

"The more chances you have to compete, the more prepared you are," said Belgrade's Jeanne Reyher, who was Miss Rodeo Montana in 1981 and the fourth runner-up in the Miss Rodeo America pageant that same year. "It's a different level of competition. In some states, girls compete all year round in events. Because of where we live, I think the girls are at a bit of a disadvantage."

Reyher said she also wonders whether the Miss Rodeo American pageant has become something of an arms race in terms of the costs of competing. For instance, because women were limited to pant suits or jeans with dress shirts when she competed in the Miss Rodeo America pageant, Reyher took four outfits and four pairs of boots that could be worn a variety of ways to Oklahoma City.

These days, the sky's the limit in terms of dress. Hardy said she is renting a van to transport the 40 different outfits and just as many pairs of boots to Las Vegas. Most of those outfits are custom made, and she said she does not plan to wear the same one twice during the run of the pageant. She estimates she has spent more than $15,000 - money she raised herself - on her wardrobe.

And that's just one way the pageant has dramatically changed, said Phillipsburg's Carolynn Vietor, a San Antonio native who won the Miss Rodeo America title in 1966. Maybe the biggest change of all, Vietor said, is the switch to Las Vegas.

"The whole magnitude of the competition now is like night and day from when I was in it," she said. "Las Vegas lends a whole different atmosphere than any state contest. Everything seems so much bigger there."

Vietor, who has since served as president of the Women's Professional Rodeo Association, said she believes the key to winning in Las Vegas is to be able to stand out in a room full of beautiful and well-dressed young women.

"It comes down to poise and presence," Vietor said. "The winner will be a woman who can walk into a room and everyone will turn their heads to look at her. She will be a woman who can take command in any situation, who demands attention simply by her presence.

"I think possibly the Montana contestants have not been exposed to the same situations that women from other states have been. That's the only possible explanation for why no Montana contestant has ever been Miss Rodeo America. It's a whole lot easier to stand out in Great Falls than it is in a crowd in Las Vegas."

Hardy said she understands that, but believes she has what it takes. Without that confidence, she said, she has no chance. Besides, she added, she believes in her dream.

"It's been a pretty crazy year, but every now and then I stop to think about the dream I'm living," she said. "My parents remind me all the time that this is what I've always wanted. No matter what happens, that's what I try to remember."

Jim Cnockaert is at jcnockaert@dailychronicle.com and 582-2690.

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