Gainesville — Friday’s installment of Rodeo Gainesville got weekend proceedings off to a royal start, with queen and princess candidates crowned on merits of personality and horsemanship.

Organizer Debbie Sicking said Saturday morning that the debut at Gainesville Riding Club (GRC) Arena was as strong as she could have wanted.

“Between the rodeo, the crowd, the vendors and the queen competition, it was a good night,” she said. “Especially when you consider that we also had Summer Sounds going on.”

Alyssa Stephenson of Keller was named “2012 GRC Rodeo Queen,” while Kylee Butts of Gainesville was named “2012 GRC Rodeo Princess.” Stephenson, 14, is an incoming Keller High School student, where she will participate in the school’s rodeo team and has sights on becoming a professional barrel racer or horse trainer. Butts, 11, is a sixth-grader at Valley View Middle School and stays involved with equestrian hobbies — with hopes of someday becoming an equine veterinarian.

In the event’s first-ever “junior princess” category, Kylee Byars, 5, of Thackerville, Okla., took the title. And in the queen division, Stephenson also had the highest ticket sales, while Laura Dill, 12, of Gainesville had the highest sales in the princess division and Kaitlynn McCage, 7, of Thackerville, Okla., had the highest sales in the junior princess division.

One change in the crowning process, Sicking said, is that for the 2012 rodeo, the ticket sales aspect was equally weighed against the horsemanship skills the girls demonstrated.

In years past, the horsemanship had been considered a slighly lesser element.

“It was probably sixty-forty,” Sicking said. “And this year, we added an interview component. The interview is conducted by John Dean, the American Quarter Horse Association judge. The older girls would get more advanced questions about their horse, and in the princess category, the questions would get a little bit simpler. The basis of the interview is to gauge their personality and enthusiasm about their horse.”

Beyond the crownings, the weekend events were a wealth of sights for lovers of all things “cowboy.” Bull riding and bronc riding and roping duels took center stage at the arena, along with barrel racing and steer wrestling.

Kelly Proffer of Durant, Okla., said she’s been a longtime Rodeo Gainesville participant and spectator, and has no aims to stop.

“It’s in my blood,” she said Friday, adding that she became involved with riding horses practically since infancy and later competed in the Gainesville event several times.

Proffer added that her rodeo involvement is currently on hiatus as she finishes college. But after graduation, it’s back to what she loves.

“Texas is a rodeo state and every little town has a rodeo,” Proffer said. “And I think it’s good for them to have a rodeo, honestly; it brings spectators once a year, and they get together and have a good time.”