Barbara Lawlor, Nederland. Many little girls dream of someday being a rodeo queen—of galloping into an arena packed with thousands of people, of proudly carrying the flag streaming behind her, wearing a fancy cowboy hat and waving to the audience while kicking up a trail of dust.

It’s a long hard trail from the beginning to the end, but Nederland Middle Senior High School Senior Mikaela Kugel, 17, has enjoyed every arduous second of the trip. Her dream has been realized. This year she was chosen as Boulder County’s  Fair and Rodeo Lady in Waiting, which means she will be next year’s queen. Which means she and her horse Nicky will be busy this summer, representing Boulder County and her community.

Her mom Lara loved horses and it was their thing, to visit the Boulder County Fairgrounds to see all the stock. When Lara went to college she sold Benny, the horse she rode, so she introduced Mikaela to the horses at the fair in 2000, putting her on top of one when she was two years old.

“The first animal I ever wanted was a horse,” remembers Mikaela. “When I was seven, my mom bought Benny back from the person she had sold her to. Benny was 26 years old.”

Lara says when she went to the barn, Benny recognized her and walked right up. Mikaela has been with a horse ever since. She took lessons when she was four and entered her first show when she was six years old.

At the age of 11, she joined the Boulder County 4-H Club and has been entering shows all summer long, every weekend, since then. She participates in English and Western riding. She won the Gilpin County Buckle Series in 2013 in her age category.

Competing in shows at her level means preparing all year long. She is a member of the Boulder Valley Riders, who meet every fourth Thursday all winter long, setting up training and showing schedules. Through the 4-H Club, she became known at the Boulder County Fair horse events.

When she was 11 she got Nicky, a speedy palomino quarter horse she will ride as rodeo queen. She also works with Payton, an American paint, in Showmanship, pleasure, and hunter events. Mikaela is currently the Boulder County Level II Western High Point earner and credits her success to Payton. She has also been the Grand Champion in Western Horsemanship for three years.

Each year there is a competition process to determine who will be the rodeo queen. The girls are judged on their public speaking ability, a private interview, a written test, and their horsemanship. Mikaela was unanimously chosen by the judges.

This year’s queen is Morgan Lynn Wallace, a senior at Mead High School, who has participated in Boulder County’s 4-H program for 13 years. She has won the Grand Champion in the Western Horsemanship Class for three years.

In the next couple of months, Mikaela and Lara will be traveling all over Colorado as well as participating in the National Final Rodeo and the Cheyenne Frontier Days. She figures she will put in 700 hours in the next year promoting rodeo. Five of those days will be at the Denver Stock Show.

After she graduates next year, Mikaela wants to take a year off to train a new horse and then she will get on with her life and go to law school, preferably at CU so she can still work with her horses.

On Sunday, July 26, Mikaela and Morgan will present the Queen For A Day workshop, open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., to those four years of age and up. It will be a day of learning what it means to be a rodeo queen; the participants will learn horsemanship, public speaking, appearance, and modeling. They will also get to make their own crown. All of the girls will be invited to come back and be in the Longmont Fair Parade.

The fair will begin on July 31 and last through August 9. During that time Mikaela will be living at the fairground.

To sign up for the Queen For A Day workshop visit bouldercountyfairroyalty.org