Local first-generation cowgirl becomes first Junior Miss Black Rodeo USA
COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – It’s one of the biggest spectator sports in the world. Rodeo is a longstanding American tradition, and one local cowgirl is breaking barriers and setting an example for future generations.
Mariah Beckom isn’t your average cowgirl.
When she’s not teaching her 9th-grade students at New Hope High School, she’s saddling up her horses.
She said that she has a connection with her red mare unlike any other.
“My red mare, she is my soul mate,” Beckom said. “So she is my spirit horse. She’s super fiery. She loves her job. She has the biggest drive, but she is full of attitude.”
This first-generation cowgirl just became the very first Junior Miss Black Rodeo USA.
“It’s an honor just being a rodeo queen,” Beckom said. “We show and we elevate the legacy of just black cowgirls in the rodeo world.”
Rodeo is often a family tradition, and most competitors start early. Mariah doesn’t fit that mold.
She is the first in her family to take to the ring and didn’t start her journey until she was 21. However, she says she falls more in love with it every day.
She said being able to compete in something that was once a male-dominated sport is empowering, and being a first-generation cowgirl came with trial and error.
“Learning how to deal with your horse and learning how to communicate with your horse, (and) just learning how to even take care of a horse is something that we do on the dailey,” Beckom said. “It’s more than just being able to jump on the horse and ride, it’s learning how to help that horse be who they are, which they have their own personalities. So (it’s) just being able to know your horse and know how to communicate with your horse.”
Preparing for the rodeo is a weekly task that comes with a lot of training for the horses.
Mariah said it can be exciting and nerve-racking.
“Even to this day, I’m four years in now, and I still get butterflies going up the alleyway,” Beckom said. “But it’s so much fun and being able to meet and connect to so many different people in the Western world that want to teach you the right way for us first-generation cowgirls and cowboys, they have just been wholeheartedly so important to us who don’t know as much.”
And even though she is the first in her family to compete, traditions have to start somewhere. Mariah is sharing her passion with the younger generation, including her 8 nieces.
“It’s so important to me to teach them the correct way, because with me being a first generation cowgirl, I ran into so much trial and error, you know, doing things correctly, doing things the wrong way, just having to study on YouTube and learn from people that was already in the Western world who knew what they were doing,” Beckom said. “But for me, being able to learn and teach my nieces and them to look up to me, already knowing how to saddle their pony, how to lead and guide and feed their ponies, when it was something that I had to learn. So I take every day to be my best so that they don’t have to go through the trial and error part of it.”
Beckom does have a training business through B6 Kuntry Ranch. There is no age or size limit to participate in the training.
If you’d like to learn more, you can visit their Facebook page at B6 Kuntry Ranch.
