Rodeo Cowgirls

Jan Youren was 11 years old when she competed in one of Idaho’s first rodeos for women in 1954. She won $54 for 24 seconds of work.

“I thought that was a way to get rich quick,” recalls Youren of Bruneau, Idaho. “It looked like the road to riches, but I’m still on the road.”

At 60, Youren continues to ride bareback on bucking horses, and she often takes her rodeo-loving family along, competing against her daughter and granddaughters at events around the West as her husband watches.

Youren’s granddaughter, Tavia Stevenson, 19, first competed in rodeo when she was 3 years old, and by 15 she was riding bulls, often riding against the boys in junior rodeos.

“I just like to compete and I’m not just doing it to say I’m a bull rider,” says Stevenson of Wheatland, Wyo. “I don’t want people to say that I’m good for a girl. I just want them to say that I’m good.”

The popularity of women’s rodeo doesn’t rival that of other professional women’s sports such as golf or soccer, but it continues to attract a rare breed of cowgirls bent on continuing a tradition that dates back more than a century.

During the Women’s National Finals Rodeo last fall in Fort Worth, Texas, Youren, Stevenson, and 73 other women competed for prizes totaling $60,000 in events ranging from calf roping to bull riding.

Women, though, proved their worth on the ranch and in rodeo decades before the first all-girl rodeo held in Bonham, Texas, in 1942.

The nation’s westward expansion put women to work on cattle and sheep ranches, and by the 1880s women were demonstrating their skills in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and rodeos across the country, often competing against men.

Women such as Annie Oakley, known for her trick shooting, set the pace at the shows that captivated folks unfamiliar with ranch life. But women also competed in roping, bronco riding and trick riding, and sometimes they beat the men, says Jennifer Nielsen, curator of the National Cowgirl Museum & Hall of Fame in Fort Worth.

High-profile women’s competitions continued through the 1930s, including national championships at New York’s Madison Square Garden, but they faded by the 1940s, Nielsen adds.

One factor was movie cowboy Gene Autry. He purchased many of the companies promoting rodeos and he didn’t feature women’s events. By the 1950s, the nation didn’t seem as accepting of rodeo as a sport for women.

No barriers with barrels

While rough and dangerous events such as bronco and trick riding ebbed, another segment of the sport rose: barrel racing.

During a barrel race, a horse and rider negotiate a weaving course around a trio of barriers in a timed event. The fastest time wins, and it’s the type of competition fans love, says Mildred Farris, 70, who started barrel racing in 1958 and remains secretary of the rodeo in her hometown of Addington, Okla.

“It’s an event that everyone can understand because it’s a horse race and everyone loves to see a horse race,” Farris says.

During the 1940s and 1950s women had to prove barrel racing belonged in male-dominated rodeos. “Women riders always tried to dress with shiny clothes, and I guess you’d say it was popular because of pretty girls and fast horses,” Farris adds.

The event continues to grow in popularity—and purses. Nowadays, barrel racing allows women to take home big checks and the elite can enjoy six-figure earnings.

Last year, the top barrel racing money-winner, Janae Ward, 21, a student at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, earned $155,792, including $111,908 at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas in December.

Still, the sport is expensive, with competitors paying for veterinarians, gas for the big trucks that haul horses, entry fees and other expenses.

For many competitors, rodeo is as much about a lifestyle as it is a money-earning sport. “It’s very family-oriented and many racers are married to competitors in other events,” says Jolee Lautaret, a barrel racer from Kingman, Ariz. “We’re all one big family.”

While barrel races are featured in just about every rodeo, members of the Professional Women’s Rodeo Association (PWRA) can compete at about 20 rodeos just for women each year. Events include bareback riding, calf roping, bull riding and team roping.

Women-only rodeo

The PWRA, founded as the Girls Rodeo Association in 1948 by a group of Texas women, has grown from its 74 original members to about 2,000 today.

Youren has been a PWRA member since 1975. Through the years, she often competed in every rodeo event that she was eligible to as she traveled across the United States and Canada. She even rode bulls for 32 years.

“We have made some headway,” says Youren of advances women have made in the male-dominated sport. “Other ladies knit or crochet. I ride bucking horses. That’s what does it for me.”

Over the years, Youren has seen many efforts to promote women’s rodeo domestically and abroad. Some made more sense than others.

One promoter in the 1960s wanted each competitor to wear a corsage as they rode. “I told them that I wasn’t riding a bull with a pin this far from my chin,” Youren says, holding her fingers about an inch apart.

Youren has never had a sponsor, depending instead on her winnings to pay for her passion. “You can have a good time,” she says, “and if the girls traveling with you chip in, you can pay expenses.”

She’s had no trouble finding traveling companions. She and her husband, Jim Youren, have 15 children, a blended family from each of their previous marriages. They also have 60 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

Each of her children, male and female, competed at some level, says Youren, who waited as long as possible to stop riding and competing when pregnant.

“I’d keep riding until you could tell I wasn’t just putting on fat and then it didn’t look so good,” she says. “All of my children had been on a bucking horse before they were born and that’s why they’re all so good at it.”

Youren’s granddaughter carries on the family tradition in rodeo’s most dangerous event—bull riding.

“It’s harder to find women to get on a bull than it is to find guys,” says Stevenson, who earns a living breaking horses for ranchers.

Only eight women, including Stevenson, qualified for the bull riding competition during the 2003 women’s national finals.

Stevenson, who has ridden about 70 bulls during her short rodeo career, often competes against men. The rules are generally the same, though women only have to stay on the bull for six seconds and can use both hands to hold on, while men must ride for eight seconds and can use only one hand.

The gutsy Stevenson has what it takes to stay onboard for six seconds, but the body-jarring rides have taken their toll on the 135-pound cowgirl. Injuries in 2003 include broken bones in her back, a broken pelvis, a lacerated liver and a cracked skull.

Through it all, she exudes a spirit that keeps women’s rodeo vital.

“I know what it is,” she says. “It’s addictive and the more I get on bulls, the more I want to get on.”

Noble Sprayberry is a freelance writer in Richardson, Texas.

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