Putting The Ranch In Rodeo Queening

The rodeo queen’s crown sitting atop her pearly white Stetson bares a noticeable distinction among the brown rings of sweated-out hatbands of worked-in black felts. Her red and white long fringed rodeo queen chaps don’t quite blend in with the rough-out leggins and tie strings worn by the working cowboys. And her long blonde hair, curled and touching the top of her saddle cantle, stands out in the arena of ranch rodeo cowboys mugging calves and roping steers.

Taylor Higdon, the described rodeo queen, revolutionized the rodeo queen world by holding the 2022-2023 Estancia Valley Ranch Rodeo Queen title. She is a ranch rodeo queen, promoting the Working Ranch Cowboy Association-sanctioned rodeos, one of the very few to do so.

“One thing that the western rodeo industry has always done well-- among contestants, producers, and sponsors-- is that community feeling,” Taylor said. “The ranch rodeo makes that community even smaller.”

Taylor is 22 years old and from Albuquerque, New Mexico. She currently goes to school for an associate degree in veterinary technology with hopes of using it for wildlife conservation. Her riding history starts at seven years old at a lesson barn in town. Her parents bought her first horse, an off-the-track Thoroughbred, when she was 11 years old.

“It was the worst financial decision my parents ever made,” joked Taylor with an eye-twinkling giggle. She was hooked on horses ever since, trying everything from hunter jumpers to showing Arabians to her current track of rodeo queening.

“I like the idea of being a role model,” she said when asked what drew her to rodeo queening. “It teaches you how to be your own person and be comfortable. You learn to be like fearlessly authentic.”

She held her first title at 16 years old for her local county, a feat she thought went against the odds.

“I actually won my Bernalillo County title on an Arabian, which is kind of uncommon,” she said. “And I was not generationally born into rodeo… God's given me my own family within the industry that has kept it going.”

Her county title sent her to the New Mexico State Fair to compete in the state fair pageant. At the time, her only goal was to win the Miss Congeniality title and the Nola Gearhart Wright Memorial Spirit Award, an award honoring the life of an influential woman in the NM State Fair pageant.

“Being a rodeo queen is so much about involving others and encouraging others. If you go into the contest thinking, 'How many friends can I make out of this?' You're naturally going to omit more of those good vibes that keep people coming back.”

Taylor has held other rodeo pageant titles in the past and was recently crowned as the 2023-2024 Rodeo De Santa Fe Queen, a Professional Cowboy Rodeo Association-sanctioned title. She has noticed there is a difference in the communities and passion between rodeos and ranch rodeos.

“There are tiny tots roping with their daddies everywhere and kids in the background on horseback,” describes Taylor. “These guys work day in and day out with the gentleman they're coming to compete with. How I look at it-- it’s families competing against other families.”

Her belt buckle came out of that same community. A board member of the Estancia Valley Ranch Rodeo made her buckle special for her.

She loves watching the ranch rodeo cowboys come together for the weekend show.

“You get to see the joy and how they feel about their job through what they're choosing to do as a hobby. They're going to wake up tomorrow and go do the very same thing that they're doing right now. If that’s not loving your job-- to do your hobby as your job, as your playtime and your fun time-- then I don't know what is,” Taylor said with a laugh. “They get to live the dream for sure.”

It’s not only about promoting the ranch rodeo for Taylor, but the agricultural industry, as well.

“You have a whole agricultural industry that runs alongside a ranch rodeo industry,” Taylor said. “If we didn't have ranches and we didn't have beef, then we're not going to have a ranch rodeo or have a ranch rodeo title. That's ultimately where their jobs are coming from and where the lifestyle stems from—the beef industry.”

Women’s ranch rodeo was described as a “relatively new phenomenon” in a previous Cowgirl Magazine article. This crown opens the doorway for more women's involvement in ranch rodeos.

“It's a male-dominated sport,” Taylor said. “Having this title, having them be so caring and excited to grow the program, revolutionizes women's involvement in ranch rodeo and our ability to represent as an athlete.”

The year-long title will stay with Taylor for the rest of her life.

“I've grown in my faith alongside self-growth through public speaking and finding my own genuine authenticity through this ranch rodeo title. It has carried into a lot of the things that I want to see in my life, not only now, but well into the future.”

The future of rodeo queening will hopefully see a little more ranch in it with the revolution of ranch rodeo queens.