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Cowgirl Pictures Taken At A Women's Ranch Rodeo
A women's ranch rodeo showcases cowgirls riding, roping, sorting, penning
cattle, and displaying other skills they use in every day ranch work. Below are
pictures of cowgirls taken at a women's ranch rodeo.
All photos are copyrighted © and property of Cowboyway.com.
The cowgirl pictures below were taken at a women's ranch rodeo
on September 22, 2007 at Strong City, KS
Two cowgirls ride hard to take their calf to the other end of the arena. |
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Four cowgirls turn in unison to turn their calf up the fence toward the
trailer in the Trailer Loading event. See the photo below for what happened
next. |
This wreck happened immediately after the previous photo was taken.
Two of the cowgirls had dismounted to load the calf into the trailer when
the calf turned around and ran back at them. One cowgirl was run
completely over, while the other one grabbed the calf around the neck in
an attempt to stop it. Neither cowgirl complained, and they both finished the
rodeo. |
All photos are copyrighted © and property of Cowboyway.com.
Buffalo Bill Cody, Early Rodeo, and Cowgirls
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In 1882, while visiting his home and ranch near North Platte, Nebraska, "Buffalo Bill" Cody organized and put on his first official rodeo-type event for
the town’s Fourth of July celebration. Although these types of events weren't called rodeos at the time, it was as much the kind of event that would later be
known as a rodeo as anything else held in those days. The show was a spectacular one. The day included bronco busting, buffalo and
steer roping and riding, and shooting contests. For one of the events four or
five head of buffalo were turned loose for the competing cowboys to rope and
then ride. Several accounts claim that one of the buffalos was ridden by two men
at one time, and another witness reported that some of the cowboys had saddled a
buffalo before it was ridden. In spite of the fact that there were no bleachers
or hardly any other accommodations for the huge crowd, or any chutes or
facilities to handle the livestock, everyone seemed to have a rollicking great
time.
It was less than a year later, on May 17, 1883, that Bill Cody debuted his
first official Wild West show in Omaha, Nebraska. This show not only featured
sharp shooting, races, and reenactments, it also strongly featured cowboy skills
such as riding and roping. Its debut was a huge success and it was this show, in
various forms for a period of 30 years, that would take early, rodeo type events
not just all over the American East and West, but abroad to such cities as
London, Rome, and Paris.
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Cowgirls In The Show
Besides capitalizing on and contributing to the early popularity of what
would one day be called a rodeo, Buffalo Bill made another significant
contribution to the early form of the sport: He added women and cowgirls to the show.
Bill Cody didn’t just add women and cowgirls to his Wild West shows in small roles, but he
used them in featured or even starring roles as well. Two years after debuting
his first Wild West show Buffalo Bill and his partner at the time, Nate Salsbury,
hired a 25 year old markswoman with the stage name of Annie Oakley. Annie was
given billing with the show, a high honor. Decidedly feminine in appearance but
a total master of a what was then considered to be a masculine skill, Annie
thrilled the crowds wherever the show traveled.
Annie’s success with the crowds was so huge that Buffalo Bill began hiring
other women for important, even featured, roles in his shows. Within the next
few years he had hired Lillian Smith, another outstanding markswoman, Mrs. Georgie
Duffy (a
cowgirl known as the “Rough Rider From Wyoming”) and Emma Lake Thatcher,
(billed as Emma Hickock), an outstanding equestrienne, to name just a few.
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