LINCOLN -- Back to school this year takes on a whole new meaning for Booneville Elementary teacher Ciarra Luebke, who was crowned Miss Rodeo Arkansas Saturday during Lincoln's 68th annual rodeo.
As Miss Rodeo Arkansas Luebke's platform starts out with "R" for rodeo and she plans to promote literacy in reading.
Monday morning Miss Luebke was back in her fourth grade classroom welcoming kids after a full day Saturday that started out at 8 a.m. Due to rainfall dampening the Lincoln Riding Club Arena Friday, the Saturday morning "Horsemanship Competition" was moved to Hat Creek Arena at nearby Summers.
For Luebke horsemanship turned out to be the toughest part of the three day pageant. She wound up riding a queen's pattern on a draw horse owned locally by Alyssa Pitts named appropriately for royalty, "De Oro," which is Spanish for gold.
"I was a little bit nervous for horsemanship because I did ride a draw horse and we had three minutes to warm our horse up before we went and did the horsemanship pattern, but I had a great horse and we put on a great pattern," Luebke said while describing the mount as beautiful and a smooth ride.
Luebke came away from Lincoln impressed with the quality of pageant, which afforded her an opportunity she once feared might never happen.
"It's really been a great experience. Lincoln has been very welcoming, had an awesome hometown feel, there were a lot of rodeo fans here tonight. Miss Sherry Smith put on a great pageant for Lincoln and I really enjoyed it," Luebke said.
"When covid happened I was really afraid I wouldn't get my chance to run for Miss Rodeo Arkansas, but we were able to put on a pageant this year and I'm so thankful for it."
Miss Rodeo Arkansas contacted Lincoln Riding Club and asked if they could send a young lady to participate in the LRC pageant since they're not having their pageant in November and not wanting to have a year that they miss having a participant in the Miss Rodeo USA Pageant.
"That way they continue their legacy and their tradition and keep their numbers going out at Las Vegas at the Miss Rodeo America Pageant," said Lincoln Riding Club Secretary/Reporter Sherry Smith.
Pageant participation allowed Luebke to review her scores so that she knows what to work on in preparing for the national competition.
"We are so thrilled. I mean she is a PRCA queen and the fact that they picked little podunk Lincoln, but we have a very strong tradition in the rodeo world," Smith said. "Lincoln is known for their rodeo so we're very thankful and also we're one of the few pageants that takes place in the state of Arkansas so we're trying to build that up and get that going and they're just working with us and it's a really high honor. We're very thankful for it."