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OGDEN -- Jody Stark looks serene and confident as she crosses the stage, but as soon as she passes the curtain, she breaks into a run.
She clomps to a stop in her iridescent silver snakeskin cowboy boots and white leather dress, which is covered with sequins and shivering with fringe.
After changing into jeans and a Western-style shirt, she lurches toward the mirror, applying more lipstick and hair spray. Finally, a new pair of inch-long crystal teardrop earrings and she's ready to go back onstage.
Around her, seven other women are doing the same thing. It's a blur of sequins and lambskin, custom-dyed jeans and cotton candy hair.
This is the fashion show at the Miss Rodeo Utah pageant, and for the past week, 23-year-old Stark and the other contestants have curled, crammed and cantered in hopes of being crowned the state's 46th queen.
"This has been a dream of mine since I was 8 years old," says Starks, the reigning Miss Rodeo Ogden who is making her fifth bid for the state title.
It's a dream shared by fewer girls these days.
The cowboy may be bucking his way back into America's heart via ESPN and the Outdoor Life Network, but the rodeo queen looks more like a dying breed. As alfalfa fields are paved under to make way for tract homes, many states are finding it difficult to find a queen to crown.
In some places, the drag queen may outnumber the rodeo queen.
By contrast, the Miss Rodeo Utah pageant usually draws a comparatively large field of contestants.
"The Utah queens have always been pretty strong on the national level," says Kate Rumford of Abbeyville, Kan., one of four judges at this year's contest. Utah's queen usually finishes in the top five and has been named Miss Rodeo America five times in the past 50 years, she says.
In addition to Stark, a South Weber native, there are seven other contestants: Jennifer Christensen of Lehi; Cami Cushing of Sandy; Melanie Haddock of Morgan; Micki Ann Musick of Spanish Fork; Stevie Anne Stewart of Fairview; ChrisAndrea Leigh Wade of Heber City; and Kami Wells of Plain City.
For those who do it, the pursuit of the golden crown and giant belt buckle becomes a way of life, often for the whole family.
Stark's mother, Linda, works at a Wal-Mart in the accounts department so she can help Stark pay for rodeo clothes, which can run $2,000 to $4,000 per outfit. Linda Stark keeps costs down by sewing everything herself.
"I like imported Italian leather," she says, "and they have to be genuine Swarovksi crystals," which she buys by the gross. She airbrushes Stark's boots and hand-dyes her jeans to ensure a perfect match.
Stark's white formal for the fashion show includes hundreds of hand-cut tassels and thousands of crystals, rhinestones and hand-strung beads that are shaped into pink and fuchsia rosettes.
By the start of the pageant last week, the dress was still not finished, so the Stark women came together, "pulled up a chair, popped a Diet Coke, and got to work," Linda Stark said.
While they did it, they planned a funeral for Stark's grandmother, who died the day before.
Stark's dad, Wayne, helps with the horses and tack, shuttling Stark and the animals around the state and offering his opinion on queen fashion.
"That doesn't mean we listen to him, though," Linda Stark jokes.
Stark's job is to work with the horses and to study rodeo statistics and trivia, physiology, training techniques, veterinary science and current events.
All that effort leads up to the pageant. On the morning it begins, the women check into a hotel and leave their cell phones at the door.
Stark has brought 15 pairs of boots, two racks full of clothes, three cans of hair spray, three sets of hot rollers and an emergency supply of spare rhinestones.
She and the other contestants must give a speech touting Utah's highlights, schmooze the judges at breakfast, lunch and dinner, and answer questions that can run from "Where is a horse's seventh vertebrae?" to "Who are the members of the G-8?"
They also must demonstrate their horsemanship, performing quick stops, crisp spins and a kind of four-legged moon walk. "Hands, feet and seat," is their performance mantra.
Each day begins before sunrise and often ends after 2 a.m. And everything happens under the noses of the judges, who are only inches away at any given moment.
Stark says the event is stressful -- "they run you ragged." Despite the competition, the pageant is fun and the girls get along well, she says.
Her friend Cami Cushing agrees -- for the most part.
"Girls can get mean, especially in competition," she says. "If your hair looks like crap, some girls will say, 'Oh yeah, it looks great.' "
Critics may scoff at the beauty-pageant-on-a-horse, but chaperone Julie Beck dismisses them.
"People are just jealous that they're beautiful and talented," she says. "Give 'em credit for what they do."
Snarky comments aside, the rewards can be real. Winning the state title means a year of work as the face of Utah rodeo, promoting events and keeping sponsors happy. Snatching the national title can lead to a career in broadcasting, marketing or modeling.
After days of scrutiny, the judges Monday night picked Cushing as their winner. She will spend the next year traveling the state and the nation, promoting the sport of rodeo. She also won four of six special awards in photogenics, public speaking, appearance and personality.
"They kept calling my name, and it felt good," said Cushing.
As for Starks, she'll pick herself up, brush herself off and get back on her horse -- her barrel-racing horse, Kat.
"I miss that horse more than anything," she said through tears Monday night.
Currently ranked No. 11 in barrel racing in the Wilderness Circuit (Utah, Idaho and Nevada), she's scheduled to compete in a rodeo next week and she's got her eye on the championships in December.
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Contact Jennifer Barrett at jbarrett@sltrib.com or 801-257-8611. Send comments to livingeditor@sltrib.com.