She’s a princess, thanks in no small part to her regal pal’s mentoring.

Mykah Holdsworth, 13, of Powell won the princess attendant and horsemanship award April 30 at the Cowley Rodeo Royalty Contest.

“I thought Mykah did an awesome job,” said Melissa Timpany, Cowley Rodeo Royalty director.

Holdsworth is Cowley’s first princess attendant to win the horsemanship award. The queen usually claims that honor, said her mother, Bessie Holdsworth. “I’m very proud of Mykah. She’s come a long way in the last year.”

“Beau (Badura) is an amazing coach,” Bessie Holdsworth said.

“This girl couldn’t even saddle her horse a year ago,” said Beau Badura, Holdsworth’s horsemanship teacher.

Badura teaches riding at her and her husband, Mark Badura’s, Pioneer Ranch in Clark.

Badura trained Holdsworth over the last year, she said. Five months ago Holdsworth got her own horse.

Initially, Holdsworth was a little insecure on horseback, but she’s currently getting her U Barrel Racing Championship (UBRC) card.

“Now she has the qualities of a superstar,” Badura said. “Now she’s going to go somewhere in the equine world. I’m very proud of Mykah. I’m teary-eyed.”

Badura taught Holdsworth barrel race reining and two figure eight patterns. She instructed Holdsworth to stand the horse for 10 second timelines, back the horse, rotate the horse left and right and rein it to a walk, she said.

Riding instruction teaches kids patience; when to push harder and when to ease up on the horse, Badura said. It also teaches tenacity.

“Even if you don’t win the buckle every time, you won because you showed up and tried,” she said.

Badura said she has had around 32 students not counting apprenticeships programs she assisted on various ranches and show barns she worked before settling in Wyoming 16 years ago.

Three of Badura’s pupils made the top five UBRC finalists; one in youth and two in open adult. Two of her students won the top five High Roller Cottonwood Winter Series in Silesia, Montana, and two in Go Momma Go Youth Barrel Racing in Powell, she said.

Badura’s son, Logun, now 8, joined the UBRC Young Guns Youth in 2015 and was a UBRC national finalist, she said.

Equine sports are the toughest, Badura said. It is a team effort. That is, the rider and horse are synchronized, communicating by linking their hearts. The horse knows if the rider is having a good day and vice versa.

Helping others is the rodeo medalist’s way of giving back. She wants to teach kids to be champions.

“I figure I want to pay it forward,” Badura said.

Badura knows a bit about riding. She has won three UBRC Top Gun titles the last three years and has the fancy belt buckles to prove it.

Ill not indisposed

The Tribune first caught up with Badura in 2010 following an eight-year bout with cancer finally in remission, but now she suffers from crippling arthritis and lupus.

“Lupus is an autoimmune disease characterized by inflammation of different tissues of the body,” according to the Centers for Disease Control. “Autoimmune diseases happen when the body’s immune system attacks its own tissues.”

“It’s eating my bones,” Badura said. “They think I had it (lupus) for at least two years.”

Badura may be ill, but it’s indiscernible in a cowgirl who is the epitome of sunny.

“It’s worth surviving cancer because I had my two kids,” Badura said.

Beau and Mark Badura’s other son, Reigan, is 10.

Sickness will not triumph.

“I’m not going to beat this, but it’s not going to take me down,” Badura said.

For one thing, teaching kids horsemanship requires the coach to be mounted too. Her’s is Mighty Mouse, the horse that carried her to championships in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

“My horse smiles as big as I do because we’re having fun,” Badura said.

Back in the day, Badura’s coaches said she couldn’t. “I want them (her students) to know they can,” she said. 

Still, Badura is no push-over in the paddock.

Her trainees must work hard, she said. “Just because I believe in them I’m not an easy coach.”

Holdsworth inspired her family. Sister, Breanna, 17, brother Cameren, 8, and Bessie are learning horsemanship from Badura, she said. Father, Scott Holdsworth, is very supportive of his family’s riding.

Training children or adults is very inspiring, Badura said. “Right now I’m not racing so I’d rather just teach. I’d like to pay it forward with love.”