Santa Fean crowned Miss Rodeo America

Dec. 29—Emma Cameron's mother once grounded her for two weeks because she refused to dismount her horse.

Cameron was 4 years old at the time.

"For two whole weeks, I was not allowed to ride, touch, feed or even clean up after my horses," Cameron, now 24, recalled in a speech during her successful bid in 2017 to become the Miss National High School Rodeo Queen.

The native Santa Fean's early passion for rodeo carried her to several title wins before she was crowned this month as Miss Rodeo America 2024 — which is "truly the biggest dream I've ever had," she said.

Cameron won the honor Dec. 10 after an eight-day pageant at the South Point Hotel in Las Vegas, Nev. The event is held each year in conjunction with the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo.

Local supporters said Cameron is only the third Miss Rodeo America from New Mexico and the first in 55 years — and called her success a "huge" inspiration for the state.

She not only won close to $30,000 in college scholarships at the pageant — she plans to pursue a doctorate and eventually go to law school to advocate for the agricultural industry — but will spend 2024 traveling to rodeos and other events across the country.

Her job: to promote "the magic" of the sport and the rodeo lifestyle, she said.

"I'm super excited. I leave Jan. 3 to go to the National Western Stock Show [in Denver], and I honestly don't even know when I'll be home again, probably sometime in April," Cameron said.

The early mornings she faces and array of duties in and out of the spotlight over the year ahead do not daunt Cameron, who is no stranger to hard work.

She has been angling to become Miss Rodeo America since she first started participating in pageants at age 9. "This was always the ultimate goal," she said.

Over the past 15 years, she "has remained incredibly committed and hardworking" to achieve that goal, said family friend Alex Tapia, who has worked with Cameron in past pageants. That has included late nights and "countless hours" studying as well as traveling and learning from former state and national rodeo queens, Tapia said.

Cameron grew up in the Santa Fe County 4-H program, going to rodeos across the state and competing in barrel racing, pole bending and showing reined cow horses.

In high school, she became a two-time state champion and three-time National High School Finals Rodeo qualifier.

Separately, she competed for Miss National High School Rodeo Queen and won on her second attempt in 2017.

"Always, to me, Emma doesn't just present a positive role model that is a bit of a facade. She is genuinely who she is," said Julie Wilson, who met Cameron through 4-H over a decade ago and has helped her train for both barrel racing and rodeo pageants.

"She has a way of making herself helpful ... a determination to get the job done and to do it well, [and] she's friendly to people, so she was easy to guide," Wilson said.

"Another thing is, she's always had horses that she worked herself, that she had to improve and compete on herself — so not just taking a big chunk of money and buying a winner. She is an exceptional rider," Wilson added.

In 2018, Cameron graduated from The MASTERS Program, a state-chartered high school in Santa Fe, and went to Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., where she graduated with a degree in agriculture and animal science.

After a brief stint working in Kansas, she returned home to run for and win the title of Miss Rodeo New Mexico 2023, which gave her a shot to earn the national title this month.

The Miss Rodeo America pageant, which had 31 contestants this year, includes a series of interviews, speeches, a written test on equine science and rodeo knowledge, a fashion show and a horsemanship competition in which the contestants complete set and freestyle patterns on horses they have never ridden before.

Tapia described the horsemanship award — which Cameron also won outright, in addition to the written test and personality awards — as one of the most "coveted" awards in the pageant, as competitors' horsemanship skills "need to be top-notch to be able to jump on any horse brought to them."

Cameron felt most proud of herself for the modeling component.

She essentially grew up on the back of a horse, but modeling came less naturally to her, she said, and she had to work "all through high school and all through college," including taking ballet and dance lessons, to improve.

In a recent interview — in which Cameron answered many questions from a reporter with a "Yes ma'am" — she thanked family and the local rodeo community for supporting her with training, tips and practice horses along the way.

But ultimately, Tapia said, her success is "a huge nod to the amount of work she's put in over the years."

"We do have pro rodeo in Santa Fe and local royalty, but it is exceptionally rare to have a young lady make it all the way to this level," Tapia said. "She's somebody that has really lived and breathed the Western lifestyle for the majority of her life, and she's been an incredible example to other young women in the Western industry that she's encountered along the way."

Now, Tapia added, Cameron can look forward to "a year of a lifetime."