Two-year queens value experience with CJD

The girls came to a mutual agreement, they said, to jointly serve as co-queens for two years and the CJD board of directors agreed.

Although the reason they got the extra time in the saddle wasn’t a positive, the horsewomen took to it like they were made for it.

Wecks said she found the extended time because of the pandemic both an advantage and a disadvantage.

“We got to spend more time with other court queens and learn more about the rodeo,” she said. “But it affected everybody in that we couldn’t go to events in person and had to talk over the phone most of the time.”

Harrod found the experience largely an advantage.

“It was a unique opportunity to learn about the rodeo and Chief Joseph Days,” she said.

Micka, too, found the two-year option the best, rather than serving for only one year.

“I’d planned for only doing it one year,” she said, but when 2020 was canceled and the directors decided to keep the girls on for another year, “that was the best option. … It was a great opportunity to do it for two years.”

Also, the court has regular chaperones for each event they attend and as it turned out, the board members rotated as chaperones.

“We got a lot of good personal experience with them,” she said.

She agreed that serving as co-queens rather than a queen and two princesses was also the best option.

“That was a good way to have us be all three queens with what we went through with the pandemic,” she said.

Wecks, too, liked being one of three co-queens.

“Chief Joseph Days is super unique as one of the few (rodeos) to pick their queen later in year,” she said. “It was cool that us three girls got to reign equal to each other.”

Harrod said it allowed the girls to become part of a greater sorority of Chief Joseph Days royalty.

“The biggest thing for me was … being a part of a huge family of women who’ve served Chief Joseph Days and the beautiful county,” she said.

She also said she believes the experience helped her grow as a person.

“It was a very awesome experience and I’m glad that I did it,” she said. “It gave me a lot of great character traits that I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere else.”

Wecks noted there was a difficult time the first year simply because of the rodeo being canceled. But the 2021 festivities made up for that.

“The second year was amazing being queen for our hometown rodeo,” she said.

The end of their reign as CJD royalty doesn’t mean the end of rodeo royalty for the girls.

Micka will be a Tuckerette, one of the hard-riding group of young women dedicated to making the rodeo exciting. She also has started giving riding lessons and serves as an unofficial judge at various horse clinics.

Harrod, who hasn’t served in any court since, did serve as a member of a previous Elgin Stampede court.

Wecks went on to the biggest honor in the rodeo royalty world, winning the title of Miss Teen Rodeo Oregon last summer. As such, she’s been traveling around the Northwest and as far away as Florida to professional rodeos and events.

Since hanging up their rodeo crowns, the girls are moving on with their lives.

Micka is working on a double degree in elementary education and agriculture education at Eastern Oregon University, where she’s also the reporter for the Agriculture Club.

Wecks is attending Treasure Valley Community College to study agricultural business management and equine science.

Harrod has been studying to be a dental hygienist at Oregon Institute of Technology.