Go West, Young Woman
Horse riding, barrel racing, pole bending, goat tying—all are part of the repertoire of Brielle Yackley, a Korean American rodeo queen who tends to stand out at rodeo events. And that’s just fine with her.
by KYLE PARTAIN
A girl and her horse. It’s a simple story that has played out millions of times in the American West. And yet, this South Dakota cowgirl’s story isn’t quite that simple.
While it’s difficult to know for sure, Brielle Yackley is likely the first—and possibly the only—South Korean-born cowgirl to ever wear an American rodeo queen crown at any level of the sport. The two-time South Dakota High School Rodeo Queen finished second at the 2011 high school finals in Gillette, Wyo., and a future at winning the Miss Rodeo South Dakota title and later competing for the Miss Rodeo America Pageant might not be far off.
Yet, Yackley’s brown eyes and dark hair don’t exactly fit the typical rodeo queen mold, which often involves blonde hair and blue eyes.
“I actually think that’s helped me,” the 18-year-old says of being “different” from other contestants. “At the National High School Finals Rodeo (in both 2010 and 2011), there were 40 other girls competing for the crown. It’s hard to stand out in a group that big. But I was able to do just that. There aren’t many (if any) Asian rodeo queens out there. I’ve found that just about any minority is drawn to me and what I’m doing. I like to think I’ve opened some doors for people, and shown them that they can make their dreams come true.”
At just 4 months old, Yackley was adopted into a South Dakota family, and the American West soon became part of her heritage.
It began with a white pony when Yackley was 4 years old. That pony would be part of the family for the next 12 years, and those early rides would prepare her for a vibrant future in rodeo, full of riding horses, running barrels, goat tying and competing in queen contests.
“There really was this connection between us,” Yackley recalls of the pony, Sammy. “He bucked me off a few times, like all ponies do, but there was no better feeling in the world than riding that pony.”
“I’ve always been drawn to the Western way of life,” she added. “When I was adopted from South Korea, I could have ended up anywhere. I believe that everything happens for a reason, and I think that comes from my adoption story. For some reason, I ended up in South Dakota. I don’t know as much about Korea as I would like to, but I’m pretty sure that I wouldn’t be riding horses and competing in rodeo queen contests if I had grown up there.”
At the 2011 high school finals in Gillette, she won the personality competition outright and tied for the win in the horsemanship and impromptu speech categories. In the end, she came up just seven points short of the title.
“Initially, it was a little disappointing,” Yackley admits. “But it’s really an honor. Not many people can say they’ve finished second at nationals.”
Rodeo queen competitions are more than just beauty contests. Contestants must show their skills on a horse (directing the animal through a set pattern around the arena while performing the traditional rodeo queen wave or carrying a sponsor flag), handle both prepared speeches and impromptu questions about Western topics, and take a written test on the rules of the sport.
There’s no doubt about the stakes at the National High School Finals Rodeo. Many of the queens who represent their states at that rodeo go on in later years to compete for, and win, the sport’s most coveted crown—the title of Miss Rodeo America. That pageant is held each December in Las Vegas, with the winner serving as a professional spokeswoman for the sport.
Yackley might make a run at adding her own name to that list in the coming years. If so, she would definitely become the first Korean American to compete for the title, according to longtime MRA executive director Raeana Wadhams.
“Right now, I’m concentrating on school,” says Yackley, who is a freshman at South Dakota State University in Brookings. “I’m planning to go to medical school, so making good grades is important. I’ve got a lot of school ahead of me, so I’m not sure I would want to take time off of that.”
Yackley’s current title, Miss Junior Rodeo South Dakota, made for a busy summer of numerous public appearances at rodeos around the state, but that schedule dies down during the school year. That wouldn’t be the case with any pageant she pursues from here on out. The next step would be to win the Miss Rodeo South Dakota title, which would give her the chance to compete at the Miss Rodeo America Pageant. Despite what she says about focusing on school right now, it’s easy to get the impression that her queen contest days aren’t behind her just yet.
“I’m not selling any of her clothes, and her horse is still out in the pasture,” says her mother, Christine Sorensen. “I’ve left that decision up to her. Competing in these pageants requires so much commitment. All I ask is that if she decides to do it, that she takes it seriously. And, I need a little bit of notice so I can start working on clothes.”
Ranch-raised in South Dakota, Christine competed in queen contests herself. A handful of other women in the family have, including Brielle’s cousin, Courtney Smith, who served as Miss Rodeo South Dakota. Their experiences helped prepare Brielle for the 21 queen contests she has competed in during the last 10 years, 13 of which she won.
“After her first year at the high school finals, she felt like one thing she needed to work on was the impromptu speech,” Christine recalls. “So, I just threw out questions at her all day around the house. She really worked hard to improve in that area.”
Christine never once worried about how her daughter might be received as a representative of the Western world.
“She has tied some of [her Korean adoptee background] into her speeches,” she says. “But this has been her lifestyle almost her entire life. The biggest problem we have is fitting her into [rodeo] clothes [because of her short stature]. It’s a good thing I can sew.”
Brielle tied with queens from Texas and Idaho at the top of the impromptu speech category in 2011, but her most important win came in horsemanship. She tied with the Texas Queen for the top spot in that category, as the two were seven points better than their closest competitors. In horsemanship, each queen rides a set pattern which requires complex footwork from the horse. A panel of judges determines how well horse and rider work together in the process.
“It was really cool to win horsemanship on my own horse, a horse that I trained,” Yackley says. “A lot of the girls rent horses and have trainers to get them into shape. I got Playboy when I was a freshman in high school. I have a really strong connection with him, just like I did with the little white pony I got when I was 4 years old.”
In addition to being Korean, Yackley differs from her fellow contestants in one other way. At just 5 feet tall, she rarely has to stoop when a crown is placed upon her head. A quick glance at award shots from recent competitions shows that she is usually a head shorter than her competitors.
“My parents kid me that I’m 4-11 and three-quarters, but I’m 5 feet,” she says, a fact she’s tried to prove with a vanity license plate that reads, “5 Flat.” Not that a quarter of an inch matters much around her family. Her dad is 6-foot-6. Her parents’ biological son, Spencer, is 6-foot-7. She also has a younger brother, Jaxon, who was also adopted from South Korea. Now 12 years old, he already stands 5-foot-7.
That’s OK. Yackley is plenty tall in the saddle, which is where she prefers to spend most of her freetime, anyway.
This article was published in the November 2012 issue of KoreAm. Subscribe today! To purchase a single issue copy of the November issue, click the “Buy Now” button below. (U.S. customers only.)
