Cowgirl Up!

A History of Rodeoing Women

H
EIDI
M. T
HOMAS

GUILFORD, CONNECTICUT

HELENA, MONTANA

A • TWODOT
^®
• BOOK

Copyright © 2014 by Heidi M. Thomas

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed to Globe Pequot Press, Attn: Rights and Permissions Department, PO Box 480, Guilford, CT 06437.

TwoDot is a registered trademark of Morris Book Publishing, LLC.

Project Editor: Staci Zacharski

Layout Artist: Melissa Evarts

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available on file.

ISBN 978-0-7627-8964-1

Printed in the United States of America

To the Montana cowgirls who made history during the Golden Age of rodeo

Acknowledgments

Preface

C
HAPTER
O
NE
: Rodeo Is No Place for Women

C
HAPTER
T
WO
: Motivation to Compete

C
HAPTER
T
HREE
: The 1920s: Heyday for Cowgirls

C
HAPTER
F
OUR
: The Ride Continues

C
HAPTER
F
IVE
: Cowgirl Life Is Not Easy

C
HAPTER
S
IX
: The 1930s: Beginning of the End

C
HAPTER
S
EVEN
: The Rodeo Life

C
HAPTER
E
IGHT
: Intrepid Is Cowgirl's Middle Name

C
HAPTER
N
INE
: The Germ of a Dream

C
HAPTER
T
EN
: The 1940s Bring Showmanship

C
HAPTER
E
LEVEN
: All in the Family

C
HAPTER
T
WELVE
: All-Girls Rodeo

C
HAPTER
T
HIRTEEN
: Who Wants to Retire?

C
HAPTER
F
OURTEEN
: Where Did They End Up?

C
HAPTER
F
IFTEEN
: The 1950s

C
HAPTER
S
IXTEEN
: Modern-Day Cowgirls

C
HAPTER
S
EVENTEEN
: Even Cowgirls Get the Bulls

C
HAPTER
E
IGHTEEN
: Woman Breaks PRCA Barrier

C
HAPTER
N
INETEEN
: Injuries

Afterword

Bibliography

About the Author

T
HANK YOU TO MY BETA READERS
, S
HARON
A
NDERSON AND
S
ALLY
Harper Bates, and to all of my writer friends for encouraging me through the years—you know who you are! Thank you to my husband and my family for your support. And thank you to Erin Turner, Staci Zacharski, and Katie Sharp at Globe Pequot/TwoDot Press for your confidence in publishing my work and working with me to make it better.

H
OME GROWN FROM THE EVERYDAY WORLD OF CATTLE RANCHING
, rodeo's roots and many terms stem from the Spanish conquistadors of the 1700s. The first rodeos began in the mid-1800s with informal contests held among working cowboys (a translation of the Spanish word
vaquero
) to see who could ride the meanest bronc or rope a steer the fastest. A hundred years ago bronc busting didn't have the lifesaving luxury of a buzzer going off after eight seconds. Cowboys rode until they were bucked off or the horse gave up, whichever came first. Some of those rides lasted up to twenty minutes.

Events later became more organized when cowboys drove thousands of cattle and horses to town in the yearly roundup, usually around July 4th. At the end of these long trail drives, the cowhands would celebrate by competing to see who was the best bronc rider, roper, or steer wrestler. With the advent of cross-country railroads, these trail drives faded away, but Wild West shows began to crop up, and cowboys continued to demonstrate their prowess at paid entertainment events. Montana joined the ranks of states holding commercial rodeos in 1896.

The first cowgirls learned to ride out of necessity to help on their family ranches. At an early age they learned to ride horses, rope cattle, and stay in the saddle atop an untamed bucking bronco. They competed with men in those early ranch gatherings and continued to do so at the organized roundup events.

In 1885 Annie Oakley, a diminutive sharpshooter in Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show, paved the way for other women to be recognized in the Wild West show arena. Two years later Bertha Kaepernick (Blancett) was allowed to enter a horse race in Cheyenne's Frontier Days. But the arena was so muddy the cowboys refused to participate. To entertain the crowd, she was coerced into riding a bucking horse. Despite the terrible conditions, she managed to stay in the saddle and put the men to shame. She continued to compete and often beat such legendary cowboys as Ben Corbett and Hoot Gibson.

A publicist for a Wild West show once said, “Rodeos will never replace Wild West shows for one good reason—they don't have beautiful cowgirls.” Women have continued to prove him wrong to this day.

The term “cow girl” had been around for many years but became one word when the national
Police Gazette
printed it as such in 1893, and Montgomery Ward also put the two words together in 1895. Although the word was already in use, Lucille Mulhall of Oklahoma is popularly known as the “first cowgirl.” One story has Teddy Roosevelt dubbing her with the title after witnessing her ride at the family ranch, and another story states it was Will Rogers who gave her the name. Lucille was among the first women to compete in roping and riding events against men and earned the title “Champion Lady Steer Roper of the World.”

Some women today don't like the word
cowgirl
, but as a writer in
Texas Monthly
magazine stated in 1987, the word is not necessarily derogatory. “Like it or not, the word calls up a range of resonant images: the coquettish trick rider in a Wild West show; the self-reliant ranch woman who brands and doctors her own calves; the suburban mother who spends every night and weekend running barrels; the bull rider who drives hundreds of miles to an All-Girl rodeo, hoping to win maybe a couple hundred dollars.”

Cowgirl is a state of mind, to paraphrase Dale Evans, who goes on to say, “Cowgirl is a pioneer spirit, a special American brand of courage. The cowgirl faces life head on, lives by her own lights, and makes no excuses. Cowgirls take stands. They speak up. They defend the things they hold dear. A cowgirl might be a rancher, or a barrel racer, or a bull rider, or an actress. But she's just as likely to be a checker at the local Winn Dixie, a full-time mother, a banker, an attorney, or an astronaut.”

World War I nearly killed rodeo, but the sport rose from the ashes and grew to greater prominence, not in the West where it was born but in the big cities of the East. Until 1922, cowboys and cowgirls who won at Cheyenne Frontier Days, which began in 1897, were considered the world's champions. Tex Austin created the Madison Square Garden Rodeo in 1922, which immediately became the premier national event. Madison Garden winners were thereafter recognized as the unofficial world champions, including several Montana cowgirls.

When Austin lost control of the Madison Square Garden contest, Col. William T. Johnson from Texas took over the Garden rodeo. He soon began producing rodeos in other Eastern indoor arenas, including Boston.

By 1920 rodeos regularly featured three cowgirl events—ladies' bronc riding, trick riding, and, at rodeos with a race track, cowgirls' relay racing.  To score in the saddle bronc event, women had to stay on board eight seconds (the men rode ten) and they were allowed to ride with two reins, although they could opt to use one as the men did. Women were often required to ride with hobbled stirrups (stirrups held fast by a strap underneath the horse, supposedly to prevent them from falling off). The time limit changed to eight seconds for men and six seconds for women during the 1950s.

Although the rodeo world has probably heard more about national female riders like Lucille Mulhall, Prairie Rose Henderson, and Tad Lucas, Montana's cowgirls ranked right up there with the best. Fannie Sperry, born in 1887, led the way in women's rodeo when she rode her first bronc at age fourteen.

Montana, where rodeos grew out of the rolling prairie of Big Sky Country, provides some of the West's richest rodeo heritage and some of the most famous women riders.

Montana cowgirls were intrepid, hardworking, and courageous. They defined the modern term “cowgirl up,” an expression that means to rise to the occasion, not to give up, and to do it all without whining or complaining. It is easy to say “cowgirl up”; however, it takes a true cowgirl at heart to live up to the true meaning.

This is the story of Montana's courageous women of rodeo.

“Ruins the events for us men”

D
ust filled the air, giving the clear blue sky a brownish haze. Steers bawled in their pens, broncs kicked their stalls, and the rodeo announcer bellowed out the name of the next rider.

A baby let out a lusty yell. Margie Greenough Henson turned to the wooden apple box, where her son lay on a pillow, and picked him up, clucking and shushing.

Her sister, Alice, called from the chutes, “You're up next, and I'm after you.”

The slender red-haired Margie waved her acknowledgment and turned to a lanky cowboy standing nearby. “Here, would you hold Chuck for me while I ride? It's only for eight seconds.”

The Greenough sisters, who are listed in both the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame and the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, epitomized the Montana cowgirls of the early 1900s and bridged the final transition between the Old West and the modern era.

A woman bronc rider earned her living by beating competitors (often men), wearing men's clothing, and living around cowboys. She had to be tough; otherwise she'd have been squeezed out. Home was on the plains and on the road, with little room for fluff. But this life didn't necessarily make her “hard-boiled.”