Steeped in tradition, the Silver Spurs Riding Club, which puts on the county’s two highly-successful rodeos each year, is long on history. That history includes annually crowning “rodeo queens”, girls and ladies tied to the heart and heritage of the event who serve as its ambassadors around and outside the community.
The riding club and the Silver Spurs Rodeo have been around since the 1940s, but something happened this year that hasn’t happened in the Spurs’ history.
When St. Cloud’s Bailee Jeannin was crowned Miss Silver Spurs in June, she became the first person to win all three of the Spurs’ pageant competitions— Little Miss Silver Spurs (won in 2017), Junior Miss (2021), and Miss Silver Spurs (2024).
Jeannin, 17, who will be a senior at Harmony High School this fall, won the Miss Silver Spurs competition in her second try, and was fully aware that history was on the line.
“I was a little nervous, but I learned lessons from the (2023) competition,” she said. “To receive these honors, I’m humbled and honored.”
The Spurs pageants consist of horsemanship and fashion components, a speech, answering and on-stage rodeo question and, what Jeannin says is her favorite, the interview.
“I like having one-on-one conversations, especially what I’m passionate about,” she said.
As part of her year-long Miss Silver Spurs duties, she will attend quite the number of community events, as well as other rodeos around the state to promote the Silver Spurs Rodeo in and beyond Osceola County.
Jeannin said her attraction to the Spurs and rodeo began early, when her mother Wendi was the marketing director for the Silver Spurs.
“So I’ve been around the Spurs almost all my life, and the love of rodeo runs in my family,” Bailee said.
The daughter of J.J. and Wendi Jeannin and a twin sister to brother Blake, you won’t just see her around rodeos working to continue that local tradition. Bailee is also very active in school and other agriculture endeavors. She is a dual enrollment student at Harmony High with a weighted GPA of 4.3 and will likely graduate with her Valencia College A.A. degree next spring. At HHS she is the current president of the school’s Future Farmers of America chapter, and is a member of the Ewe-Neek Country Kids 4H Club.
During the February rodeo, you’ll see Bailee bouncing from the rodeo ring to the livestock fair, where she annually shows steers and market hogs. She also volunteers at the McCormick Research Institute, which uses horse training to provide therapy to injured veterans.
After graduation, her plan is to attend the University of Florida and major in some type of agricultural communications. She said her “dream job” is to appear on TV channels that highlight rodeo, such as The Cowboy Channel, as a presenter or commentator.
Her rodeo platform, “Ignite Your Passion,” will remain close to heart, Bailee said. When her Miss Silver Spurs year ends she said she plans to remain a part of the rodeo committee to be a positive role model to future rodeo queens, and make a statewide run at Miss Teen Rodeo Florida.
“It’s all part of a unique and amazing experience I intend to stay a part of,” she said.
