Cal Poly Rodeo Team helps 11-year-old cancer survivor’s wish come true

Eleven-year-old Maddilynn Owens grew up riding horses. But for more than a year, all Maddie had the strength for was to be lifted onto her horse’s back by her dad, and lie there until she fell asleep.

Maddie, who lives in the town of Winton near Merced, was diagnosed with bone cancer in August 2020. Now, through the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the Cal Poly Rodeo Team, she’s returning to horseback riding full steam ahead.

The Make-A-Wish Foundation coordinated with the rodeo team to achieve Maddie’s top wish to do barrel racing.

Cal Poly Rodeo Team assistant coach Sierra Spratt, a graduate student, began teaching Maddie how to barrel race on Saturday. She’s training Maddie to compete at the Poly Royal Rodeo in April as a special guest of the rodeo team.

“Just since meeting her and everything, we just kind of clicked and we’ve kind of become buddies,” Spratt said. “And she’s got the talent already so I don’t really need to do anything.”

Maddie said she was excited to compete in barrel racing, which she described as going between three barrels “as fast as you can.” If a competitor knocks down a barrel, five seconds are added to their time. The rider with the lowest time wins.

“I just like it because I like horses and I go fast,” Maddie said.

The 80th annual Poly Royal Rodeo will be on Saturday, April 9. Spratt said it’s the team’s comeback event after missing last year due to the pandemic, and having Maddie there will make it even more special.

“I think it’s gonna be something that every single team member is gonna remember for the rest of their lives,” Spratt said. “We’re just all incredibly humbled and grateful to be a part of her journey in some small way.”

Maddie’s fight against cancer

Maddie is fighting Ewing osteosarcoma, an aggressive form of bone cancer that can quickly spread to the lungs.

Maddie has gone through chemotherapy successfully, as well as surgery to remove a tumor in her arm and replace a bone in her arm with her fibula.

“She’s got clear margins, so her doctors are saying they’d be shocked if the cancer came back,” Maddie’s mom, Christa Owens, said. “You take it day by day, and you’re grateful for what you get.”

Owens said Maddie took it like a “champ.”

“She took it all in stride, it was just a thing for her,” Maddie’s dad, Stephen Owens, said. “I don’t think she quite understood why everybody else was so saddened and had a hard time. It was just something that she had to beat.”

After her surgery, Maddie had to learn how to walk again. The doctors told her to walk to the door of her hospital room — but Maddie went farther.

“I cried like a baby — it was like the proudest dad moment ever watching her do that,” Stephan said. “So, yeah, she’s a fighter.”

This story was originally published February 14, 2022 at 11:29 AM.