A couple of weeks ago, the Taylor, Utah, native was officially crowned Miss Rodeo America 2026 at the Miss Rodeo America Pageant in Las Vegas.

Favero told the Standard-Examiner that the rodeo has long been a part of her and her family’s history.

“At first, I was just a fan,” she said. “It was a family tradition for my family to go to the Ogden Pioneer Days Rodeo on the 24th of July, and at that rodeo is where they crown Miss Rodeo Utah. I watched the coronation, got autographs and I aspired to do that one day.”

And she wouldn’t be kept in the stands forever.

“A friend — her daughter was a rodeo queen — they offered to help me get started,” she said. “They helped me find the outfits and helped me practice my modeling and interview skills and we had the horses at home to get me started as well. I worked really hard over a lot of years and I never took a break. After I started when I was eight, I started competing in pageants year after year. I competed for 14 years and I won Miss Rodeo Utah in July 2024. Then I was the Lady in Waiting until 2025 began.”

Beginning in January 2025, Favero represented the state as Miss Rodeo Utah and, therefore, qualified for the Miss Rodeo America Pageant 2026 in Las Vegas at the beginning of December.

“It was a great week,” she said. “We had eight days of competition. We stayed at the South Point Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. I’ve watched the pageant for five or six years now and gone to events to cheer on the contestant from Utah every year. So this year, being on stage I had to ground myself and remember that this is really a big deal.”

She said this support helped fuel her passion and kept her going during a contest that, at times, required some deviation from how the competition would usually be carried out.

“At the pageant, we were judged in various aspects — they judged us on personality, appearance, horsemanship, public speaking and we also had a fashion show,” she said. “This year, horsemanship was a little bit different because of an equine virus that had started a few weeks prior, so we didn’t actually have horses at the pageant, but we were able to submit a video. The judges could watch that and we were able to commentate during the video to get to know ourselves and what skills we had as horsewomen better.”

And then on Sunday, Dec. 7, came the big reveal.

“They do the coronation live in-person,” Favero said. “People can come watch and they stream it on the Cowboy Channel, which has a huge following, so I knew that a lot of people would be watching. They did the drumroll and made it very suspenseful, so I was selected into the top five. After that, we came back and answered a question on stage. Then they take everybody off stage, we come back on, they do awards for each category and then start with the runner ups.”

She said she was confident, but it was still quite the wait to hear her name called.

“When I didn’t hear my name until they called me as ‘Miss Rodeo America,’ it was really humbling,” she said. “I was immediately just overwhelmed with gratitude. A lot of people said, ‘Oh, why didn’t you start jumping up and down? And you weren’t crying, crying, crying. Most girls cry on stage.’ But I prayed to have peace and comfort and that I would be confident in my performance, so that definitely showed through.”

From here, Favero said she is going to have a very busy 2026.

“This year, I’ll travel to many states in our country representing the Western industry, representing the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and the Miss Rodeo America organization and all of our great sponsors,” she said. “Throughout the year we do a lot of rodeo appearances and different public events and community events to connect with people who are there as well. Most of the time, I work with volunteers and others who love this industry as much as I do.”

She said she’s looking forward to traveling across the nation, but also helping to spread her platform as she goes.

“My platform is titled, ‘Enjoy the Ride,'” she said. “On all of my autograph sheets, I write this and many comments on Instagram, people would say, ‘Hope you’re enjoying the ride. Looks like you are enjoying your ride.’ Even though we all have differences and may not all be rodeo queens, whatever we do, we can still find that common ground to have a relationship and connect with each other as well as work towards our goals.”