Blue eyes sparkling, outshining the light cyan beads around her neck, blond hair framing her face, her quick smile revealing a genial spirit, Kelsey Parmenter speaks with a comfortable, quiet confidence unsullied by arrogance or pretense.
As Miss Rodeo Arkansas 2015 and Miss Rodeo of the Ozarks 2013, Kelsey visits schools to tell children about rodeos and the Western way of life as well as to encourage reading through a program called Horse Tales Literacy Project. During her reign, she will visit various festivals around the country.
"We go to schools and do presentations for classes and tell them aspects of the rodeo industry. Basically, we take any opportunity to interact with children. There are no requirements for how many times you make appearances, but you get to make it what it is.
"That's what I love. That's my goal, to be able to reach out to the youth," Kelsey said.
Parmenter, 21, is a 2011 graduate of Pea Ridge High School. She initially went to college at Arkansas Tech University then transferred to the University of Arkansas where she is almost finished with a bachelor's degree in agri business. She said she plans to go to law school, but is taking a year off from school to earn money for classes.
"She was an outstanding student at high school -- very well spoken, a very articulate student," Rick Neal, superintendent of Pea Ridge Schools, said. "She's done a tremendous job in the rodeo piece; that's right up her alley. She's very much a people person, a communicator."
Neal, who was the principal of Pea Ridge High School when Kelsey was there, said he believed she would do a great job representing Pea Ridge and Arkansas.
"Absolutely! She'll do very well."
For the title of Miss Rodeo Arkansas, Kelsey had to participate in different portions of a two-day pageant including horsemanship, impromptu speaking, interviews, photogenics. The national title is a more involved, longer process, she said.
Exuding enthusiasm, Kelsey said of being a rodeo queen: "It's a combination of the glitz and the glam and the dirt and the mud."
She is just as comfortable on stage in boots and a dress, on horseback or on the dirt floor of an arena wrestling a calf.
The daughter of Christy Brown of Bella Vista and Brian and Allison Parmenter of Pea Ridge, Kelsey is the second of five children who include Kirk, Kami and Krystal Parmenter and Chris Sparks.
"I've always had an interest in horses," she said. "From a young age, I wanted to look in the trailers or go to the neighbor's house and pet the horses. I started by getting my own horse at about 13 -- it was a pony, a companion.
She said it was a student teacher in Mr. Perry Mason's class at Pea Ridge High School who told her about the rodeo pageants. "She asked if I'd ever considered it, and I said 'No.' I'd never heard of it. She told me she thought I would be really good at it. So, I ran and won runner up Teen Miss Rodeo Arkansas in about 2010."
Then, she won Miss Rodeo of the Ozarks.
"I fell in love with it," Kelsey said of the rodeo queen competition.
"It's my chance to be a voice for preserving the Western way of life. There's so much kids don't realize that goes into rodeo, the Western way of life, agriculture. I'm really excited about getting to influence more students."
And, as for the pageants, "I'm 100 percent financially independent. That's the hardest part -- seeking sponsorships," she said. She is having an auction Jan. 24 in Parson's Stadium, Springdale, to raise funds to help support her year as Miss Rodeo Arkansas.
"How much I raise will determine how much I can do, how much I can travel and promote. I plan to go to Cheyenne Frontier Days and Pikes Peak or Bust."
"I'd always been good about saving money," she said, explaining that she saved all money she received for birthdays or holidays and bought her first truck herself when she turned 16. Then, she got a job at a bank and saved that money to buy a trailer and horse.
"I want to promote the title, the state, to testify to the kids -- you don't have to come from a background of rodeo, of money or from a big town. If it's your passion, chase it. You can achieve it," she said, blue eyes sparkling.
"I'm really proud to say I'm from Pea Ridge because I really love this town so much."
Kelsey is working at Cara Brewer's Cutting Horse Ranch in Jay, Okla. She works six days a week, seven hours a day and saves her money for college. "I could have taken out a loan, but that makes me so nervous," she said. "This turned out to be a really good choice."
One day, Kelsey told her friend, Rocky Barker, who shod her horses, that she was looking for a job pertaining to horses. He told her about Cara's place, she went out for an interview and started immediately.
"I started that day, moved out there that weekend -- my life changed on a whim. It turned out to be the best thing."
The job has her in the saddle constantly.
"I will be able to compete well in the horsemanship part of the competition," she said. The girls are not allowed to use their own horses for the competition, in order to keep everyone on a level playing field, she said. The horses she's working on now are preparing for the Fort Worth Futurity. She is training four or five horses and is learning to work with different horses.
"I think anyone can get involved in horses if they want to," she said. One of her passions is using horses for therapy for both for children and adults. "That's what I would like to be able to do."
She sold her horse, Remington, when she went to college, but Russell Van Elk at Rush Springs Ranch, Pineville, Mo., sponsors a horse for her. It's a palomino quarter horse named Maximus. "I'm not a big color person. It has more to do wth the performance of the horse."
"It gets in your blood," she said of her love for horses and quoting a friend, Bill Wood, who manages the horses at Rush Springs Ranch. "When you get a horse that is working really well, it's hard for people who have never experienced it to understand it. It's almost an addiction, but a good one."
Wood, who Kelsey's refers to as her "mentor," said: "I've raised cutting horses all my life and I've helped Kelsey out since she was a little girl. She's a very good horsewoman."
Kelsey said rodeo people are "a different breed" and are willing to help one another even though they're competing against each other. "It's a sportsmanship that is unmatched with any other sport. Anywhere you go, everywhere you go it's open arms."
"I've had the opportunity to ride a lot of really nice horses at Cara's place. Whenever I compete for Miss Rodeo America, we don't bring a horse. There are two different horsemanship competitions and riding a horse you've never seen before shows your horsemanship experience."
Cara Brewer said of Kelsey: "She's one of the hardest working girls I've ever had working for me. She has great people skills. She works hard. She never complains. She's good with horses and people. She's a very, very positive person.
"She's very driven," Brewer said, acknowledging that Kelsey's responsibilities during her reign will take her away from the ranch. "She was very up-front with that from the beginning. That's been her goal, to participate, to go to schools, go to rodeos."
Kelsey will compete in the buckle class (beginner class) in the cutting horse competition. "I will continue to compete in cutting horses. It's such an adrenaline rush."
She said most people think of barrel racing when they think of girls in rodeo, but she said the cutting horse competition is "awfully fun."
"I didn't grow up riding horses. A lot of the girls in the circuit, who will compete for Miss Rodeo America, grew up on horseback," she said. That pageant will be a two-week competition in December 2015 in Las Vegas in conjunction with the National Finals Rodeo.
"They monitor you for two weeks to see how well you interact with people. A rodeo queen has to be knowledgeable on current events, equine news, the Western way of life. It's a year out, but I've been studying. I could be asked anything, especially in agri or rodeo industry. She has to be very knowledgeable and well rounded. They're not just looking for a beauty queen, that's for sure."
General News on 11/19/2014