Royalty enjoys the experience of representing Washakie County Fair

This year's fair royalty has already had a busy summer, despite the fact that the Washakie County Fair just got underway last Saturday.

In its second year under the direction of Beth Stiver, this year's royalty is Junior Princess Lacee Greet of Ten Sleep, Princess Dahlia Lara of Worland and Queen Faith Pfeifer of Worland.

Greet is the junior princess for the second year in a row. She said she enjoyed it last year and it was a lot of fun. She mostly enjoyed the riding at different events and carrying the flags.

She is the 9-year-old daughter of Tessia and Daniel Greet. She is involved in 4-H and will be involved in the horse show and beef show at the county fair.

Lara said she wanted to try new things and that is why she wanted to be involved with this year's royalty. She enjoys riding her horse in barrels, pole bending, goat tying and breakaway.

She enjoys carrying the flags as well on grand entries because she likes riding fast.

She is the 10-year-old daughter of Dustin Lara and Beth Stiver.

Pfeifer, 23, was helping Stiver with some horsemanship workshop and "I was offered the part of queen."

Stiver said there were no queen applicants this year and Pfeifer has done a good job representing the Washakie County Fair and being a mentor to the younger royalty members.

This is not her first time representing an organization as part of a royalty as she was part of the Bridger Valley Junior Rodeo from 2016 to 2018.

She competes in rodeos and enjoys representing the agriculture industry. She added that she likes to show "that we're not, how I would say, we're not just a bunch of pretty faces. We're here to show that girls can be a part of rodeo as well as show off our horsemanship skills in and outside of the arena."

Pfeifer added that she also has enjoyed showing "the young kids how fun it is to be royalty as well as maybe help them answer questions that they may have."

Pfeifer is the daughter of Sheldon and Holl Pfeifer.

Stiver arranged for several workshops for the Washakie County Fair Royalty, with other neighboring royalty also attending.

Stiver said, "The workshops were a ton of fun and I believe had some really great information. In addition, the group was able to meet some outstanding ladies from Wyoming and surrounding states. As an added benefit, the group had to use some of the skills that we work to build by talking and answering questions from someone that they have just recently met.

"I definitely was able to see improvement with confidence and communication skills from a few of the girls that participated in most of our workshops."

Stiver added, "We plan to line up workshops again for this coming year and are brainstorming some other ideas to improve participation.

As for what the royalty has been doing this summer, Stiver said. "We had some exciting invitations this year for our program. Our queen has done a little traveling participating at local and pro rodeos in the area. I love that Washakie County is being represented at these events.

"One of the highlights for the entire group was being invited to participate in the Cody Stampede festivities. All three girls traveled to Cody and joined in on the parade and met rodeo queens from around the country including Miss Rodeo American and reconnecting with our friend, Miss Rodeo Wyoming."

This week the royalty started off with Lara attending the unveiling of the new sign last Friday, July 21. Then on Tuesday night, the entire royalty helped with the public style show. They will carry flags for the grand entry at both the youth rodeo (Wednesday) and Fair Rodeo Friday night.

They will ride in the parade Saturday morning, be involved with Strut Your Mutt judging Saturday afternoon and greet attendees for the Deana Carter concert Saturday night.

"The rest of the year we will encourage participation at other county events including Harvest Fest and the Rotary/Washakie Museum Quick Draw event," Stiver said. She added that if someone has an event that they would like the royalty program to assist with please get in touch with her. You can find the royalty on Facebook to stay up to date on what they have going on.

Stiver said despite the limited response the past two years she plans on continuing the program next year and beyond.

"We still don't have a large participation group, but each day it builds. I still believe it is a great program that teaches lessons, create connections and builds friendships," she said.