Tough talent through the generations: Cowboy state’s Taylor Thoman named national high school rodeo queen

Taylor Thoman grew up watching the women in her family put their own stamp on the western way of life and do it in a big way. Her grandmother is in the Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame, her mother was Miss Rodeo Wyoming, and both women, as well as Taylor’s aunts, have been the backbone to the running of the family ranch. Now, the 17-year-old Green River, Wyoming cowgirl is carrying that legacy to a larger stage as the next National High School Rodeo Queen.

Being a rodeo queen was passed down to through the generations in Taylor’s family, not only is she a fifth-generation rancher, she’s a third-generation rodeo queen.

“Part of the National High School Rodeo Association mission statement is preserving the western heritage and I kind of have firsthand experience of preserving that heritage,” Taylor says. “I have to say, all these women I’m surrounded by have been really empowering and encouraged me to keep pushing, especially my grandma since she lost her husband quite a few years ago and had to basically run everything on her own. She’s pretty gritty.”

Taylor set her sights on being a rodeo queen at a young age, 18-months old specifically, when her mom, Laurie, asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up.

“I said, Miss Rodeo America,” Taylor says. “I’ve been to almost every Miss Rodeo America pageant since I was a baby, and every NFR except the year it was in Texas,” Taylor says. “Being a rodeo queen was something I’ve always been bound and determined to do.”

Laurie was the 1994 Miss Rodeo Wyoming, and since then has been involved in rodeo queen pageants from the state to the national level, serving as the Wyoming National Director, on the Miss Rodeo American Executive Board and judging the National High School Rodeo Queen pageant a few times. For Laurie, who grew up a shy ranch girl, becoming a rodeo queen opened a whole new skill set for her and it was something she found that she really enjoyed.

“We watch girls grow into young women through the skills they develop through rodeo queening,” Laurie says. “When you go into a queen pageant, you’re participating in many different categories, not just one thing. Say, you run barrels, you’re focusing on one event. In queening you have personality, appearance, horsemanship, interviewing, impromptu questions, public speech, written test, a whole spectrum of events you have to work on, practice and become skilled at.”

Though Laurie is a vault of experience for Taylor, she’s been adamant that Taylor push herself to prepare. 

“She told me if I wanted to be a queen, I had to figure out how I was going to do it myself,” Taylor says. “She gave me questions and feedback on my speeches and modeling but most of it was work I put in because that’s what I wanted to do.”

For her first pageant, Taylor says she felt over prepared, and as the years have gone on, competition has gotten more challenging. Last year, she competed for the National High School Rodeo Queen title for the first time and ended the pageant as first runner up, a humbling experience.

“It was really good for me though, I made so many friendships and connections while I was there and I’m just super grateful for that experience,” she says. “This year coming into it, I prepped extra hard to get there.”

Taylor thought she tanked her chance at the title when, during the horsemanship pattern, her mare that she also runs poles in high school rodeos on and Taylor had a miscommunication. While Taylor was focused on the pattern they were about to run, her mare bolted through the gate looking for poles to run to.

“At the judges roundtable, one of the judges said, ‘Don’t let one part of the competition determine how the rest of it is going to go,’ so with that mindset I was able to come back 10 times stronger in all the other categories and ended up winning it,” Taylor says.

Perhaps she needed a reminder from the judge, but it’s a mindset she’s learned all too well from the strong women in her family: always come back stronger.

As the National High School Rodeo Queen, Taylor will act as the liaison for the student athletes and attend the association’s midwinter meeting as a student officer. As her state representative still, she is required to go to every state high school rodeo, which she will do anyway as she continues to compete herself. She will also travel to the National Finals Rodeo to work at the National High School Rodeo Association booth and attend the Miss Rodeo America pageant.

Amid all her rodeo queen duties for the next year, Taylor has also recently acquired her student pilots license, encouraged by her aunt Mary, another one of the inspiring women in Taylor’s life, and she has plans to get her commercial pilots license.

Taylor says she’s more on the adventurous side, and becoming a pilot will fit in perfectly to her future plans, but the ranch in Green River will always be home with her family, cows, dogs and horses, and hopefully someday a Miss Rodeo America crown, as well.