Local crowned state fair queen

CLOVIS - Deanne Guthrie has been competing in rodeo queen competitions since she was 5. Since then, she dreamed of becoming state fair queen, a dream that became a reality last weekend.

Guthrie thought she reached a big milestone by achieving her goal of winning the horsemanship portion of the state fair queen competition. She also won the personality portion, but hadn't expected much else from this year's competition.

Satisfied with those two achievements alone, she said she was thoroughly surprised when the judges announced she was to be crowned queen.

"That was my goal, just horsemanship. The big thing for rodeo queens is the horsemanship title," Guthrie said. "I won personality first, which was kind of shocking because the other girls were so nice. Then I got horsemanship, which is what I really wanted to win. Then they called first runner-up and second runner-up and I realized there was only one name left. They called me and I didn't know what to think."

To be state fair queen, contestants have to excel at horsemanship, display a winning personality, be able to answer impromptu questions about the state and give a stirring speech to the crowd. The average of their scores are then taken and reviewed by the judges to decide who will be queen.

"You have to do a lot to prepare. You have to know a lot about the state fair, New Mexico as a whole and the rodeo," Guthrie said. "Instead of just a rodeo queen, you also need to be fair queen. So every single day I practiced."

Guthrie was born and raised in Clovis by her parents Ronnie and Renee Guthrie. Raising horses has always been a big part of her life and she has six of them. When it comes to rodeo competitions, she has many titles under her belt, including Little Miss Rodeo New Mexico, Little Buckaroo Rodeo Queen and Pioneer Rodeo Days Queen.

"I've been involved in rodeo and horses my entire life," Guthrie said. "I'd say I've been riding since before I could walk."

Guthrie attends Clovis Community College and is looking to finish her basic EMT training this semester. With a big year ahead of her as state queen, she said her hands would be full juggling a college schedule for a degree. She plans to look for a job that can accommodate her term as queen for the year, after which she'll take a year off from competitions to return to college and hopefully earn an advanced EMT certification.

That won't be it for her rodeo days however. After college Guthrie plans to run for Miss Turquoise Circuit and Miss Rodeo New Mexico within the next 4-5 years.

Guthrie was mentored by the first New Mexico state fair queen, Wilma Fulgham, who earned the title for Curry County 69 years ago and has been coaching contestants from Curry ever since. Fulgham said she's mentored over 10 queens since then.

"I'm getting older, but I'm involved with the committee for the state fair and work with a great group of girls," Fulgham said. "I've worked with Deanne for many years and she's been a delight."

Curry County's last winner was Stephanie Bailey from Broadview in 2013.