LINCOLN -- Elaina Knight, 20, daughter of Ron and Donna Knight, of Van Buren, concludes her year-long reign as Lincoln Riding Club Queen by presiding over the 68th annual Lincoln Rodeo this week.
According to her bio, this cowgirl's in a sprint to become a patrol officer for the Crawford County Sheriff's Office. Elaina was a former Old Fort Days Dandie and has been riding horses most of her life. Elaina did not start competing until she was 14 years old on her 17-year-old short one-eyed paint named Kate. Elaina has two other horses as well. Dudley is the horse she uses for queening competitions and Diva is the mount that she runs barrels on.
With so many irons in the fire, this cowgirl's needed a little help along the way and her dad, Ron Knight, quietly makes a lot of contributions behind the scenes in her rodeo career.
According to Elainia, he likes to call himself her PR man, a role that required improving his photography skills.
"Let's just say he wasn't the best photographer before I started competing in rodeo pageants and we are still learning," Elaina stated in a Father's Day tribute posted on social media in June.
She credits her dad as always being one to help her with the horses and if she forgets to do something he's quick on the follow-up, doing what she's overlooked. She gratefully acknowledged benefitting from a personal manager who works for free.
Elaina has won multiple local barrel racing series awards. In 2018, she won Reserve Champion in Western Pleasure for Crawford County. In 2019, Elaina was first runner-up for Arkansas State Fair Livestock Queen and won Miss Congeniality. Elaina has held two other titles so far which were 2016 Miss Teen Holiday and 2019 Miss North Franklin County.
When Elaina is not working or riding horses she loves to go hiking and working out. In High School Elaina received the Arkansas Scholars Scholarship, The Pointer Pride Scholarship, and was inducted into the National High School Scholars. Elaina's dad was a professional cowboy in his day so rodeo has always been a huge part of Elaina's life.