BY MEGHAN FLYNN
Garden City Telegram
Brayley Frazier, a native of Garden City, is the 2024 Miss Rodeo Kansas.
She was in Garden City for the start of Beef Empire Days, which served as the kickoff to her summer activities.
Frazier won her crown in August of 2023 at the Dodge City Round Up Rodeo, where she took up the lady-in-waiting period until January.
“You have a crowning moment where they give you the tiara, but then you kind of have four or five months of holding time, really just taking care of things before your year actually gets started,” she said. “Then in January most girls have a coronation party and that’s what kicks off our year.”
Following January, Frazier said Miss Rodeo Kansas then follows the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association circuit. Most states have a rodeo queen who represents their state, and Frazier represents the Kansas Pro Rodeo Association.
In December, Frazier can run for Miss Rodeo America, which will take place over eight days in Las Vegas. There will be a horseman competition, horseman interview, personal interviews, a speech, media questions, a media interview, a fashion show and more.
Frazier said it feels surreal to be Rodeo Queen. It’s a dream that she never thought she’d be doing, even though she’s participated in rodeo most of her life and was the Kansas High School Rodeo Queen, and then ran in the national competition.
“I ended up seventh there, which was a big honor,” she said. “I came back home and thought I’d be done that was it for me.”
Frazier graduated from Cimarron High School in 2021. While she is a Garden City native and did attend Garden City High School for two years, Frazier left after her sophomore year, when a friend committed suicide.
“The school just reacted really, really poorly to it,” she said. “We weren’t really allowed to grieve or talk about it, or if we said his name we were sent to the counselors. I couldn’t do it anymore; I needed to talk and grieve through that with my friends.”
She then went to online school for a year, she did rodeo, but realized she needed a social life, so she went to school in Cimarron, where her grandparents lived, rather than got back to GCHS.
“Garden is where I would have thought I’d graduate from, 100%, but things happen, and I just wasn’t pleased with how they handled that situation, so I had to remove myself for my mental health,” she said. “It was hard, I’d grown up here with all my friends.”
In 2022, Frazier moved to Golf Shores, Ala. Moving down there was a dream, Frazier said, plus, she wanted to be an event coordinator and she got a job at a wedding venue down there.
Plus, she didn’t want to go to school; she didn’t know what she wanted to do yet, Frazier said.
“I went down to Alabama instead; to actually put my feet in the whole event coordinating water and see if that was something I wanted to do,” she said. “I loved it, but I don’t think I want to do it for weddings. I’m glad that I went down and had that experience rather than investing myself in education to be a wedding coordinator when I wouldn’t have liked that for very long.”
Frazier returned to Garden City in 2023, after her grandmother, who is now deceased, was diagnosed with cancer.
Her grandmother was a big part of why she ran for Rodeo Queen, Frazier said.
“Before I knew I knew it my grandma called me and she said you’re back in Garden, do you think you’re going to want to run for Miss Rodeo Kansas?” she said. “I had just picked up my hat a couple of days before that without anybody knowing, so, I said yeah, and ended up applying.”
She had four weeks to prepare for the pageant and ended up taking home the title.
It was quite the experience, running for and now holding the title, Frazier said. Everybody who ran for the title has a different story, some have been rodeo queening for 17 consecutive years, have dedicated themselves to it, and then there are people like her who just love the sport and want to advocate for it, are glad to be a part of it.
Frazier said she’s glad to have taken part and to have learned from the girls who have run and those that have come before her.
“To have this crown on my hat, there’s a big legacy behind it and it’s crazy to think that the support that I’ve been given and the feedback I’ve been given from people,” she said.
Her life the past few years has been filled with quick changes, but it’s never been intimidating, and she’s never been fearful, Frazier said. But in queening, her eyes have been opened to the impact that people can have on one another.
It’s been one of her biggest takeaways from her journey since becoming Rodeo Queen, how people can make each other feel, Frazier said.
“It’s how you approach somebody, how you speak and treat the people around you,” she said. “I’ve watched girls make bigger impacts around me that don’t have this crown on than ones that do, and it really is all how you handle yourself as a human. It’s been eye-opening.”
Frazier said it’s been cool to grow through this experience, and she’s just getting started.
Her reign has just begun, Frazier said. While she did technically start in January, her reign really kicks off in June and runs through August.
In that time, she will be traveling with the rodeo, following “all the professional rodeo cowboys up and down the road.”
It’s a crazy summer full of travel, once she starts, she will be on the road traveling as much as they’ll let her and won’t be back until around October, Frazier said.
“I’m so excited,” she said. “I’m a traveler, so, this is perfect or me.”
Frazier said she doesn’t know what’s next for her after the national competition in December, but she’s not worried.
“That’s the cool part about this year really is all of us girls’ kind of get the opportunity to be like do what you want, open doors,” she said. “That’s kind of where I’m at, I’m just waiting for the door to open.”
Brayley Frazier, Miss Rodeo Kansas, attended the Finney County Public Library Summer Reading Kickoff on May 31. MEGHAN FLYNN/GARDEN CITY TELEGRAM
