In Las Vegas, there’s only one pageant that includes


horsemanship and evening gowns, and


Miss Rodeo Virginia’s Charla Wacker was looking to ride out as the winner


across her torso, no oversized Miss Rodeo Virginia buckle on her belt. No floor-length leather gown. No rhinestones. ¶ Tonight is all practice. In the breakfast nook of her pageant coach’s home, Miss Rodeo Virginia Charla Wacker — Charli to all who know her well — is walking through her speech and hearing final tips on gestures, word choice and pacing. The countdown is on. In about a week, this softball star from Broad Run High School, who played shortstop throughout college, graduated with a biology degree from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, and has never competed in a beauty pageant, will board a plane at Dulles and fly to Las Vegas. There, she will vie for the biggest crown in rodeo royalty: Miss Rodeo America. ¶ “This makes me very nervous.” Charli looks at the crowd gathered around the granite countertops: her rodeo queen coach, Kathy Spencer; Kathy’s 25-year-old daughter, Tara, a 2006 Miss Rodeo Colorado and top 10 finalist from the Miss Rodeo America competition; Kathy’s husband, Dave, who works in construction but, after spending nine years squiring Tara through the rodeo queen world, can be called a queening expert himself; and Chris Wagner, a horse farrier, who lives with the Spencers.


N


by Darragh Johnson


photographs by rebecca Drobis


Tiara Gallon


Ten-


ow comes the rodeo queen, in jeans and a lilac hoodie, posing under this kitchen chandelier as if it’s a spotlight. She has left her muddy boots by the back door and her Miss Rodeo Virginia crown back home. She wears no Miss Rodeo Virginia sash


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