North Idaho Fair and Rodeo queen ready to ride

Born in Coeur d'Alene, raised in Athol and Spirit Lake, the first North Idaho Fair and Rodeo queen is Timberlake High School senior Jessica Norlander. With a reign lasting until August 2014, the new royal is excited about her job.

"I'm going to travel to different rodeos in Idaho and Washington and represent the North Idaho Fair that way," she said. "And next July I can compete for Miss Idaho Rodeo."

And in between, she'll be riding in the local Thanksgiving, St. Patrick's, Lilac, and Fourth of July parades.

Norlander competed for her title in a series of judged events including horsemanship, personal interview, public speaking, PRCA Rodeo and North Idaho Fair knowledge test and modeling.

"I took a quiz about the history of the fair and rodeo rules and stats and then I did a speech on how the fair influences the community," Norlander said. "I'm fairly new to rodeo, but wanted to get into it more. This is a great way to do it."

The horsemanship part of the competition involved riding several patterns with her horse as well as with a second horse with whom she was unfamiliar.

"I have two horses of my own," she said. "I do barrel racing and 4-H and the Rolling Thunder Drill Team with one of them and the other one I'm training. The drill team goes before the rodeo and we do things that make the crowd think we're going to crash."

Her future interests include becoming a veterinarian or a farrier. She is also active in high school sports and is hopeful she can get a college basketball scholarship.

"My family has gone to University of Idaho a lot so if I could go to UI, that would be awesome."

What does she do for fun?

"Horses, basketball, 4-H and the fair pretty much sums it up," she said.