Jordan Tierney didn’t truly fall in love with rodeo until she was older. Today, her personal experience in the sport benefits her reign as Miss Rodeo America.
The youngest daughter of Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association world champion tie-down roper Paul Tierney, Jordan Tierney naturally gravitated toward rodeo. Growing up on her family’s ranch near Oral, South Dakota, the headstrong girl also loved helping her dad with chores.
“There was no option but to rodeo, and looking back, I am grateful for that,” she says.
The vibrant 26-year-old redhead is serving her second consecutive year as Miss Rodeo America due to the COVID-19 pandemic that derailed her 2020 reign. Tierney is more than a pretty face in sparkling clothes holding a flag aboard a horse during the national anthem. She competed on the Chadron State College rodeo team and graduated in May of 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and marketing. After graduation in 2017, she worked as the office manager for a physical therapist in Hot Springs, South Dakota. In July of 2018, she won the Miss Days of ’76 crown at the Days of ’76 rodeo in Deadwood, South Dakota. That fall, she won Miss Rodeo South Dakota and began her reign in January of 2019. The following December, she competed in the Miss Rodeo America competition in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“Being in front of people, knowing how to be poised but genuine, that is something most people don’t think about. I’ve never prepared for anything as hard in my life as I did for the Miss Rodeo America pageant,” she says.
Photo by Kate Bradley Byars
For three years, Tierney’s represented her family’s way of life in the public eye as a rodeo queen. When she completes her reign, she is eager to join the workforce as an advocate for the agricultural and beef cattle industries. Living the Western way of life has been foremost in Tierney’s mind from a young age. However, today the drive to support the lifestyle through her public experiences as Miss Rodeo America, and after she takes off the crown, is more important than ever.
“Even when I was resistant to it, my parents showed me that this is the best way of life,” she says. “When I am Miss Rodeo America, I am a representation of everyone [in rodeo] and I want to be a reflection of that.”
Read more about Tierney in the June 2021 issue of Western Horseman.
