Mane Event - April 21 & 23, 2017

To walk in a building and be greeted by booths upon booths of tack, leather, trailers and clothing would be like walking into a cowgirl’s dream. That is how I would describe the Mane event, a place where horse people from every place and discipline can gather to watch trainers and clinicians from around the world, find anything, tack or clothing for you and your horse or the best part, learning about each others’ worlds. 

 I come from an English and Western background, two different, yet similar styles of riding, a lot of my riding and knowledge comes from an organization called Canadian Pony Club which I have been a member of for 16 years. I was so proud to see the banner hanging in a booth, representing a youths way of getting involved in the horse world!

 One of the best stops of the day was at Kactus Design where I got to pick up our beautiful golden jackets sponsored by Julie and Airdrie Auto Body. They are long time sponsors of the Airdrie Rodeo Royalty so getting to wear these jackets, same as the previous royalty before us made it that more special as I put it on. 

I spent most the day at our amazing sponsor The Hat Doctors booth, were I got to promote our beautiful black cherry hats. Carol and Greg were hard at work fixing, cleaning and stretching hats of all shapes and sizes. I was fortunate to hear the tale of a young lady looking to get her days old cowboy hat reshaped to her size so she could wear it before he passed away. There was tears in all our eyes as Carol passed the hat over and it fit beautifully on Shawna’s’ head. It was a pleasure to talk to everyone who stopped in and told me tales of their hats, I can only imagine the secrets a hat could tell! 

I finished the day off by touring around the last half of the market with my princess in training, Jasmine, where I met a wonderful lady, Tally McLauren from Wild Rags who sponsored me my first ever Wild Rag.  It is an beautiful scarf and I will wear it with pride!

As the days count down to our Celebration of  50 years of Rodeo, events like these make me so thankful for the opportunities that are presented with the Miss Rodeo Airdrie title. I am so proud of community and lifestyle I was raised in and the welcoming atmosphere of events like these. Thank you to all our sponsor who have made this year possible, without generous and supporting business our year would not have been possible! 

I look forwards to the adventures in the remaining few months,

Emily Marston

Miss Rodeo Airdrie 2016