Cowboy boots to high heels

Besides wearing her tiara and trying to attend as many fair events with her court as possible, the Monroe County Queen, Makenzy Hamilton, will also spend a lot of her time grooming and showing her two horses.

Hamilton decided a week before the show she’d trade her cowboy boots for high heels. She bought her dress at the last minute because she wasn’t sure she’d have time to enter the pageant, let alone be fair queen, and show her horses Tuesday and Thursday.

“I was standing up there, and I was thinking that it will be great for whoever wins,” Hamilton said. “They said it was contestant 31, and I was like, ‘Wow, I’m glad she won.’ And then I was like, ‘Wait ... that’s me.’”

Though Hamilton said this is her first time getting all “girlied up,” and she wasn’t sure she’d be able to walk in her high heels, she’ll now be competing in the Indiana State Fair pageant in August.

“She’s 100 percent tomboy. I did not expect it,” her mother, Rebecca Hamilton, said.
“We were getting stuff together to leave and then we were like, ‘Really, that’s our daughter?’”

The competition is based 50 percent on the interview process and then on professional wear and evening attire. There is a swimsuit competition, but the queen and her court are not judged based on that portion.

Hamilton said during her five-minute interview, all she talked about was her horses.

“We’re very busy during the fair, especially with the horses,” Hamilton said. “We have to get them ready the night before. You’re out there all day, hot and sweaty and making sure their stalls are ready and decorating their stalls.”

Most other girls said they were excited for Hamilton.

“I really love Makenzy Hamilton,” said Taylor Kerr, fourth runner-up. “I obviously wanted myself to win, but I’d want her to win if I couldn’t. We were the last two to go, and we thought that was a big deal.”

The 32 girls participating in the pageant had less than a week to prepare for the more than 2-hour-long show.

On Tuesday, the girls began learning the opening show and spent most of their week preparing, putting in two to six hours each day.

“I helped them with the dance and how to walk and turn,” said last year’s fair queen, Julie Johnston. “The first night you have to do a lot of organizing so the show goes well.”

Johnston, who met the girls Tuesday at the Queen’s Tea, said Hamilton and her court have a long week cut out for them.

“I attended every event and every show,” Johnston said. “I showed pigs, and I was in the derby. It’ll be relaxing, but it’ll be a lot different than last year.”

Though all the girls in the pageant are members of 4-H and have a full week ahead of them, Hamilton said she still doesn’t think it has hit her how busy she’ll be.

“I guarantee I’ll wake up tomorrow and be like, ‘I don’t know what to do, Mom, I need your help,’” she said.