Because of her volunteer job at the Buffalo Bill Rodeo, Beachner (left) gets to rub elbows with rodeo royalty like Miss Rodeo America 2024 Kennadee Riggs. (Photo courtesy Gayman)
North Platte, Neb. – May 27, 2025 – Raegyn Beachner lives for the Buffalo Bill Rodeo in North Platte.
The 14-year-old cowgirl, a resident of Hershey, Neb., volunteers at the rodeo, carrying sponsor flags during the grand entry of each night of rodeo, and saddling, unsaddling and warming up horses that the rodeo queens ride.
Beachner has been helping at the rodeo the past four years, but she’s been attending it since she was a baby.
The daughter of Ashley and Tylan Gayman and Levi Beachner, her grandparents, Tom and Shelli Arensdorf, live near Hershey. Raegyn and her family lived near Parsons, Kan., but every summer they would come back to Nebraska for the week of rodeo. Raegyn and her mom moved to Hershey seven years ago.
State rodeo queens from all over the country come to North Platte for the Buffalo Bill Rodeo, and Beachenr saddles their horses and warms them up, so they are ready to ride. Marvin Mueller, Sutherland, supplies many of the saddle horses the que
ens ride.
She’s had the chance the last two years to carry a flag on horseback in the grand entry, which is what she loves.
She also loves meeting all the queens, including Miss Rodeo Nebraska and Miss Rodeo America, who visit North Platte for the rodeo.
“I get to meet a bunch of new queens, and I get to meet the professional rodeo athletes, too,” she said. The sponsor flag staging area is close to where the cowboys and cowgirls warm up their horses, so Beachner has rubbed elbows with big-name barrel racers like world champions Hailey Kinsel and Fallon Taylor and multiple-time National Finals Rodeo qualifiers like Emily Beisel and Stevi Hillman.
(photos courtesy S. Arensdorf/Gayman)
Beachner comes from a long line of rodeo volunteers. Her grandma has been on the Buffalo Bill Rodeo committee for twenty years, and competed in high school and professional rodeo as well.
“She lives for it,” Arensdorf said, of her granddaughter. She loves being around horses. “She will spend hours and hours and hours with the horses, combing, petting, bathing, walking and riding them.”
Beachner loves horses. “I love having a personal friend,” she said. “I talk to them, and they’re always there when you need them.”
The Buffalo Bill Rodeo takes place June 18-21 in North Platte at the Wild West Arena. Shows start each night at 7:30 pm.
Tickets range in price from $11-$24 and can be purchased online at NebraskalandDays.com, at the NebraskalandDays office, and at the gate.
For more information and a complete schedule of NebraskalandDays events, visit the website or call the office at 308.532.7939.
