The glam, the glitz and the fashion are what lie on top of the Miss Rodeo Texas royalty horse pageant.
But under all that, for North Texas Fair and Rodeo Princess Mckinley Wagley, the competition is just about a girl who loves her horse.
“I feel like I'm not an absolute, pageant pageant girl, but rodeo pageants—… yeah, let's do it,” Mckinley said. “But, just, modeling and interviewing, that's not me. But the horse ones, I can do. I love them.”
She has participated in pageants since she was 7 years old and is the first in her family to do so.
“McKinley is a firstgeneration cowgirl, so everything that we're learning, we're learning together,” said Kat Wagley, her mother.
It all started one week at Hopper Ranch horse camp during COVID while Mckinley was 5, interacting with horses, riding and doing different activities.
McKinley was captivated by the sport, and it bloomed from there.
McKinley practiced barrel racing, and an instructor who had participated in the rodeo pageantry suggested the idea to Kat.
“So, we tried the summer of 2021, and we signed her up, and we were prepping and doing everything to get ready for the pageant, and then the week of the pageant, my whole family all got COVID that summer,” Kat said.
That setback knocked Mckinley out of the competition.
With more time to practice for the next year, Mckinley came back ready.
When the pageant rolled around in 2022, she ran for junior princess again and won her first title.
She added princess to the list in 2025 and is now going for the Texas princess title in a multiday competition starting June 16.
Sharing the spotlight with Mckinley is her horse, Cupid.
“He has baby blue eyes, sometimes a little sassy but most of the time, super sweet,” Mckinley said of her companion.
The pair have worked together for several years now.
Those around her have noticed improvements in her skills and confidence over the years, including trainer and horsemanship coach Michaela Ponce who owns the facility, Cowgirl in Progress, where Mckinley and Cupid have trained for nearly three years.
“It's been great to watch her grow because as she gets older, the competition in horsemanship gets more difficult,” Ponce said. “So, the bar is raised as they get older and more mature and handle more things. And so, she's had to really grow a lot as a rider to meet the new expectations of each pageant, each level she's doing.”
It can be a challenge competing in pageants and managing horses, Ponce said, but in the world of rodeo, camaraderie is huge.
“It's not uncommon to see the girls in the back help each other curling their hair or loaning makeup, or they're even considerate [about] outfits,” Ponce said. “Like, if you get there and one girl's wearing a gold dress and you're going to wear a gold dress, if somebody can swap, they'll swap. So, that way they're trying to give the spotlight or share the spotlight.”
It’s not just a competition; it’s also a friendship and community.
“I am looking forward to meeting all the other girls I don't know and meeting the teens and queens and getting time to spend time with my friends and family,” Mckinley said.
Along with preparing for Miss Rodeo Texas, McKinley spends her summers doing what she loves: horse riding and competitive dance.
“I tell people a lot of times that she's a lot braver than I ever was as a kid,” Kat said. “… It kind of fills you with a lot of pride as a mom to watch your child grow in that space and knowing that they're taking life skills that they're going to be able to take into adulthood and further in their lives.”
