Like being a rodeo queen is just being an ambassador for the sport of rodeo.

You make appearances, you interact with kids.

You just kind of do everything that needs to be done within the rodeo industry.

You're in all around cowgirl, so I mean I was just recognized as the first black one in the state of Arkansas.

I would say, like my first time ever seeing a horse and my first encounter, I was like amazed.

I remember thinking they're so big but I was like Oh my goodness, like I actually get to.

Put a seat on this big old horse and ride it.

My name is Jordan Kirsch.

I'm 23 years old.

I'm from Fort Smith, AR.

My love for horses.

It started when I was about six years old.

I was introduced to horses because I was sexually assaulted and I went through like counseling and my counselor.

I always say that she introduced me to a horse and she told me that this is a £1500 animal and she was like if you can control this horse.

You can control anything that comes your way.

She sent me in a saddle that day and she handed me the reins to my freedom.

Horses are very intuitive with everything going on around them.

They don't like a situation or they don't like where they're at.

They're comfortable.

They're going to show you, and I feel like just the way that they're able to express themselves and just be so freeing and so big, but also so loving.

I feel like that's where the connection really comes from.

My family.

They're actually very city people.

I'm kind of like the only one out of my family that rides horses.

I didn't grow up on a ranch or anything like that.

That was like as quick as I could get to one I did.

So everybody always wants to know what she rides through her mother.

But now I like them.

They're pretty, they're big, but no, I'm not getting on when she first told me she was going to compete.

It was like I was surprised, but I wasn't shocked and they do.

The routines with the horses.

I'll freak out.

I used to be at the practice.

It's like, OK, other kids sit down we still.

We got just focus and watch.

What does she fall with it for the she fell a few times but what she do?

She got back up on her own for someone that doesn't know anything about Rodeo Queening.

It's just like a miss pageant like a Miss USA except we have horseback.

We have horsemanship when we go through like a horse coordination and everything.

That it's very difficult.

You know you have to be very intuitive not just with what's going on with the horse that you select to ride because you don't bring your own horse, they pick it for you.

But you also have to know like everything about it, like you don't know what the judge is gonna ask you.

So we go through that and then we take a test as well.

We also have interviews.

You just kind of got to know everything that's going on at the rodeo.

Some rodeos have themes you need to know the theme, like there's a lot that entails a rodeo queen pageant.

When I found out I was first black rodeo queen, I was like, oh man.

I have so much to do if I'm one of the first, there's no way like I didn't believe it for a little bit.

So for me like that's where it became so much less about me.

Like Oh my goodness, if I'm the first like when's the second one gonna be?

And why am I the first one like I I remember being crowned at Coal Hill on my 17th birthday and I remember going on to Google right after that like where?

Where do I?

How can I find the woman that I need to look up to?

You know, another woman that looks like me in this industry doing that.

I didn't find it.

It's funny to look back.

And realize like how far I've come and what I really just didn't know.

Whenever I had first started, I wasn't the best rider.

There was a couple of us that had a lot to learn and I was one of them, but I progressively got better, like I progressively got really good.

That didn't go into it having a horse.

I didn't go into it having a trailer.

I just had enough people around me that believed in what I wanted to do.

I was working enough to be able to afford a little bit of it, not even a bunch.

And so as I progressively you know, started having the things that I needed and started getting as good as the girls there was so many things that just become a problem for some of the parents and some of the hostility like that I was dealing with.

I was 16 years old when I first went through my racist experience in the western industry and I wasn't with other 16 year old girls.

This was with middle age adults.

They were middle age adults treating me negatively speaking down on me, having their kids, you know, send me videos of me calling me different names, like until this day I'm still dealing with it with the same adults like the same adults that bullied me when I was 16 years old.

Are the same adults that are trying to bully me again as a 23 year old.

I never replied to this stuff on social media and of course everybody see the negative comments when it comes to the racism stuff.

I just open the door and close it.

For me, I look at it and keep on going.

It got so bad that we had like a mandatory meeting with the old Fort Days Rodeo board and they had to come down the chairman and all of them and they had to speak for me in the way that I was being treated on the team and the way that I was being talked about at 16 years old it progressively got worse to the point where you know I had a teammates brother text me things, you know, nasty things just calling me all types of stuff.

Some of the situations that I went through when I was 16 and and on a team with 19 other girls and dealing with the racism from their parents.

Actually, was the reason that I sold everything and you know, I did try to quit being a cowgirl.

I did try to quit their western industry but like just you know for a whole year of not having a horse not having a saddle, not having cowgirl boots and stuff like that like I learned real quick like you can't quit who you are and nobody can take that from you either.

I'm a cowgirl and I'm gonna be a cowgirl till the end and whether they like it or not, I'm here.

She's a go getter.

She doesn't give up on anything.

She fall down, she gets back up on her own.

I just feel like she's so strong minded.

The things that she's been through.

If you Googled her and kept up with her, you know the things she's been through.

Anybody else would have crumbled at her age.

You know a young age like that.

I had parents in boxing me when Jadeja is having a hard time from social media and they tell me tell her to hold her head back up because my child is looking at her.

I have grown women my age telling me that they look up to.

Today and I'm always telling her you think that you're just there for your peers and people younger than you.

You got grown women who look up to you, so keep doing what you're doing.

No matter who.

Try to step on you.

Dust yourself off and get back up.

Having kids come up to you.

You know that are inspired by what you're doing.

That's where I always say what I do in this industry is so much bigger than me.

It's not even about me at all.

It's about the next young kid that can come up in this industry.

Whether it's you know whether you're black, whether you're Hispanic, whether you're anything like I just want to see more diversity in my industry, that's so important.

Kids see representation and that kids know that while I am this color, I'm whatever color I am or whatever complexion people perceive me as.

It's like I see someone that looks like me.

You know, it's important that kids see themselves in positions that maybe you know they don't see it all the time.

The knowledge that I want kids to learn and to know through animals through for kids, it's not really that difficult.

We teach kids about food, we teach them about healthy diets and being athletic, you can make it so kid friendly.

You can introduce a kid to a cow and be like you know how you love.

State you know how you love this?

You know you drink milk all the time, like this is where it comes from.

It's getting the kids excited about it.

A lot of them just don't know, they just lack the knowledge.

I'm a very proud mother.

People always say everybody till their kids got the limit.

So I tell you there's not the limit because there is no limit.

You keep going no matter what you think you're fighting for.

That is not important right now.

You never know when everything that you're talking about is going to be important enough for you to have that platform for that voice.

For a group of people and and you never know when that time will come, so it's like.

Ever be quiet about what you believe in?

If you believe in something you know, stand on it and own it and not everybody's gonna believe in what you believe in.

Not everybody's gonna agree with what you're doing no matter what you stand on what you speak for just never allow anyone to mute you.