Abilene Rodeo to Host Miss Rodeo K-State

Even New Yorkers love rodeo. At least that’s true for 2024 Miss Rodeo Kansas State Queen Jordan Daugherty.

This K-State student, an Army brat, spent her high school years in New York City and now she’s been crowned K-State’s rodeo queen.

The daughter of Aaron and Eryn Freese, her family lived in Lawton, Oklahoma, Alexandria, Virginia, and upstate New York before her parents moved to Staten Island, New York, for four years.

At age eight, she began riding horses, English style, and worked in a stable. The family’s finances were tight, so for every hour she spent cleaning stables, she was given $10 credit toward riding lessons.

She then moved to Staten Island, where she volunteered with a therapeutic riding group, just to be around horses.

A barrel racer from New Jersey’s Cowtown Rodeo saw her riding and said Jordan should try barrel racing. “You’re a great rider,” she told Jordan. But Jordan didn’t have a horse and wasn’t even old enough to ride.

In 2020, she bought her first horse and started running barrels. At the time, she was an undergraduate at Iowa State University in Ames, where she graduated two years later with a degree in biology.

Jordan is currently studying for her Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine at K-State. She chose K-State because of the friendliness of the people.

“K-State was the most personal, the most welcoming,” she said. “It felt like a family, and that they really cared about each individual student, and that’s where I wanted to be.”

At K-State, she is a member of the college rodeo team, where she competes in barrel racing and breakaway roping. She does not have the advantage of having rodeoed at a young age, as many rodeo competitors do.

“It’s intimidating to take a green-broken horse to college rodeo when you’ve only been doing it for four years and they’ve been doing it their whole lives.” But she’s made friends and she’s enjoying it. “I’ve learned so much, being around these other people who have been rodeoing their whole lives. I love it.”

Jordan has competed in college rodeo for the past two years. She has “created” – trained – her own barrel horse and breakaway horse, and hopes to qualify for the College National Finals Rodeo before her college career is over.

At K-State, she is in the Health Professions Scholarship Program, a competitive scholarship that she was awarded. After graduating in May 2026, she will be active duty as a military veterinarian. She may be stationed with a deploying unit, caring for working military animals such as dogs and horses, or with a non-deploying unit, caring for pets of military families.

She didn’t think she would ever win a rodeo queen title. “I thought, (being a rodeo queen) is cool, but isn’t this for people who have ranches back home? You go to these rodeos, you see these girls, and you think it’s cool, but you don’t think it’s for you.”

When she was crowned in March of this year, she was elated. “Wouldn’t it be cool if I could talk to a little girl, tell her my story and she would say, maybe I can do this. Maybe my story will change someone’s mind, that this is possible.”

Jordan will be at the Wild Bill Hickok Rodeo in Abilene from July 30 through August 2. She will ride in the parade on July 30, appear at the Abilene Public Library on July 30 at 10 a.m., sign autographs at Holm Automotive on August 1 from 10:30 a.m. to noon, and sign autographs after each rodeo night.

The rodeo takes place from July 30 through August 2, with shows every night at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are $12 for adults in advance and $15 at the gate. Children’s tickets (ages 4-10) are $8.

Tickets can be purchased online at WildBillHickokRodeo.com, at West’s Country Mart, Lumber House True Value and Pioneer Farm and Ranch and at the gate.

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Jordan Daugherty spent her high school years in New York City and is now the 2024 Miss Rodeo K-State queen. She is studying to become a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine. Photos courtesy of Daugherty.