The History of Women’s Professional Bronc Riding 1904-1940, by Jody Ellen Meanus, shares the profiles and photographs of more than thirty champion women bronc riders who made history in the early days of rodeo.
Pictured on the cover, Dorothy Morrell was named Women’s World Champion Bucking Horse Rider at the 1914 Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo. She worked as a stunt double and horseback extra in Hollywood westerns as early as 1915. In 1917 she married cowboy and actor Skeeter Bill Robbins and they rode in the First International Rodeo in London, England in 1924.
Women’s bronc riding is a part of rodeo history which many people are unfamiliar with, although it was, at one time, a well respected aspect of professional rodeo. In the early 1900’s major rodeos such as the Pendleton Round-Up, Cheyenne Frontier Days and the Calgary Stampede welcomed women bronc riders and often featured them as the star attraction in their top billings to draw in crowds. During the 1930’s professional rodeo began to undergo series of decidedly biased changes that ultimately led to the near total demise of women’s roughstock competition.
“In 1904, when 21-year-old Bertha Kaepernick mounted a bronc at the Cheyenne Frontier Days, her wild ride launched a new era in rodeo.”
In 1914 Bertha Kaepernick Blanchett came within four points of winning the All-Around title at the Pendleton Round-Up. This caused the rodeo committee to change the qualifications for winning to ensure that while a cowgirl could place second, only a cowboy could win the All Around Championship of the World.
The creak of leather, the smell of horses, the sounds of the arena and the anticipation that accompanied every ride; for the women who lived the rodeo life it was all of this and more, it was the hopes for a good ride, a fair judge, and a safe trip to the next stop on the rodeo circuit. In the late 1930’s however, a deliberate effort removed many women’s competitions from professional rodeo. There have been few injustices in the world of rodeo comparable to the biased campaign that ultimately led to the near total demise of women’s participation in professional roughstock events.
Tad Lucas, known as “Rodeo’s First Lady,” made her professional debut in 1917 and became a full-time professional in 1922. Tad traveled the world competing and performing in rodeos along with her cowboy husband, James Edward “Buck” Lucas. She was one of the founding members of the Girls Rodeo Association in 1948, now the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association (WPRA), the oldest women’s professional sports association and the only one governed entirely by women.
Mary Lou LeCompte, Assistant Professor at the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education at the University of Texas at Austin, wrote a very good synopsis of the history in an article titled Home on the Range: Women in Professional Rodeo: 1929-1947, published in The Journal of Sport History, Vol. 17, No. 3 (Winter, 1990). An excerpt:
“Rodeo cowgirls were among America’s pioneer professional athletes, achieving financial success and international acclaim prior to the Golden Age of sport, and long before female professional athletes were widely accepted by the public. Over 450 women enjoyed professional rodeo careers between 1890 and 1943. These cowgirls were featured at many of the biggest, most lucrative rodeos in the United States and abroad, with the top cowgirls’ earnings equaling and sometimes surpassing those of the foremost cowboys. Furthermore, unlike most female athletes, cowgirls received overwhelmingly favorable and unbiased treatment from the press. These women were obviously dedicated professionals, and most were also all-around athletes. A vast majority of them competed in two or more events, and worked as contract entertainers as well as contestants. Despite their versatility, almost 60 percent competed in bronc riding, which, during the 1930s, became both the most profitable and the most controversial cowgirl contest.”
“To the yesterdays that are gone, to the waddies I used to know, to the bronc busters that rode beside me, to the horses beneath me–I take off my hat. I wouldn’t have missed one minute of it.” ~Fannie Sperry Steele
Fannie Sperry Steele, the “Ladies’ Bucking Horse Champion of the World.” In a career that spanned two decades, Fannie became a legend, and she was one of the first women inducted into the National Rodeo Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. In 1978 she became the first Montana native in the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame, and in 2009 she was inducted into the Montana Cowboys Hall of Fame.
This book details the little-known history of women’s professional bronc riding, and why it was removed from the rodeo arena. Included are discussions of the history of this golden era of rodeo, as well as stories of some of the women who skillfully stepped into the stirrups of early day bucking horses.
One of the most famous rodeo photographs ever taken was Walter S. Bowman’s spectacular photo of Bonnie McCarroll being thrown from a saddle bronc named ‘Silver’ at the 1915 Pendleton Round-Up. By 1922 Bonnie McCarroll was the top female bronc rider in the nation, placing first at the prestigious Cheyenne Frontier Days, and becoming the first to win the bronc riding championship at the Madison Square Garden Rodeo, becoming the only cowgirl ever to win at the two most prestigious rodeos in the nation in the same year.
The History of Women’s Professional Bronc Riding: 1904 to 1940, by Jody Ellen Meanus. 180 pages, full color, indexed, with more than 120 photographs. Bibliography, Resources, Indexed. Available from Northern Light Media for $39.95 plus $5.00 shipping, or from any bookseller.
The History of Women’s Professional Bronc Riding: 1904 to 1940
180 pages, full color, indexed, with more than 120 photographs. Bibliography, Resources, Indexed. Available from Northern Light Media for $39.95 plus $5.00 shipping.
$44.95
Northern Light Media 