The Ride of Her Life - Fanny Sperry Steele

By Bennett Owen

If there are no horses in heaven, I don’t want to go there. -- Fanny Sperry Steele

Credit: Cowgirl.net

She was a stunning beauty with long braided hair, a warm and engaging personality…and an iron will…make that Steele. And when that fanny sat in the saddle, it was by God gonna’ stay put.  By age 25 Fanny Sperry had already made a name for herself throughout the west but it was her performance at the inaugural Calgary Stampede in 1912 that cemented her standing as a western legend, riding ‘Red Wing,’ a hellacious bucking bronc that had stomped a cowboy to death just four days earlier.   

Credit: geocaching

Here’s a description of the ride, courtesy WILD WEST Magazine:

Red Wing came straight out of the chute standing on his hind legs. He bucked…hard! He sidestepped, circled, head down, head up. The crowd exploded as they watched Sperry's waist-long black braid flounce up and down to the rhythm of the horse under her. She heard the 10-second whistle blow and jumped to the ground. She knew this magnificent sorrel had given her the ride of her life. 'GIVE THE LITTLE LADY A NIIICE HAND!' said the announcer.

A hand and a $1,000 dollar paycheck, a custom saddle and a gold belt buckle. In all, a pretty decent payday considering that ride lives on as one of the best in rodeo history.

Fanny Sperry was born in 1887 at the base of Sleeping Giant Mountain near Helena, Montana.   Her mother, Rachel, taught all five children to “ride as soon as they could walk” and as a child, Fanny and her brother made sport of rounding up the wild pintos in the surrounding foothills and then riding the roughest ones.  By age 15 she was performing in ‘Horse Shows,’ the precursor to the rodeo. 

In 1913 she met and married Bill Steele, a champion rider and rodeo clown and they spent their honeymoon…rodeo-ing, with Sperry Steele riding as many as 14 broncs in a single weekend and earning a reputation of ‘gluing herself to the saddle.’

Credit: National Cowboy Museum

The young couple started up a Wild West show, touring with Buffalo Bill Cody.

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In addition to her horse and bull riding skills, Sperry Steele was a steel-eyed marksman who would shoot the ashes from her husband’s cigar.

Credit: PatchesWorld.org

She also became a fashion icon for her ‘divided’ skirts with a front panel that allowed her to ride astride and keep a ladylike appearance…always a consideration, especially when ‘sticking to the saddle like a cocklebur’ atop the infamous “Midnight” in Madison Square Garden.

Credit: BirchStreetClothing.com

The Steeles eventually went into ranching near Lincoln, Montana.

Widowed by 1940 she kept the ranch by herself for nearly 30 years, breaking horses, and saddle guiding hunters into rough country.  In 1975 at nearly 90 years of age Fanny Sperry Steele became one of the first three women inducted into the Rodeo Hall of Fame.  And as she edged toward the century mark, Steele summed up her life thusly:   “…to the cowboys 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.”   Now that’s one heck of a ride.

Bill Pickett Rodeos – The Greatest Show on Dirt

By Bennett Owen

Credit: Frenchcreoles

The Bill Pickett Rodeo circuit is celebrating its 27^th year … a singular showcase for African American cowboys with four stops throughout the year capped off by a championship in September in our nation’s capital.  It’s a going concern. Last weekend, Hayward, California, just outside Oakland. Next weekend, Los Angeles. (tickets available online at www.billpickettrodeo.com)

The legendary Bill Pickett was a giant of the west, larger than life whose sweat, pride and ingenuity commanded respect and earned deep and enduring friendships. He was born in 1870 on a dirt poor Texas ranch, one of 13 children, and yet by the early 20^th century he was a star with the 101 Ranch Wild West Show…one of the great shows in the tradition of "Buffalo Bill" Cody. The two were good friends.  As rodeo came into fashion, Pickett performed in the granddaddy of ‘em all, the Cheyenne Frontier Days.

Credit: Frenchcreoles

There are many legends as to how Pickett invented one of modern rodeo’s signature events. My favorite has him spying his son in a pen with an angry Bull and wrestling the animal to the ground, in part by biting hard on his lip as he’d seen the cow dogs do. And thus the sport of “Bulldogging” … Steer Wrestling … was born.  (The action starts at about 1:00)

Another cowboy and film legend, Yakima Canutt, later said that the resulting sport of “hoolihaning" was so dangerous to both contestants and stock that it was outlawed, following a rash of injuries and death.

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Nevertheless, Pickett rose to stardom with the wild-west show, performing throughout America, Canada, Mexico, South America and Britain alongside Buffalo Bill, Cowboy Bill Watts, Tom Mix and Will Rogers.  His heroic feat of daring and bravery alongside Rogers in Madison Square Gardens is one of the favorite stories of my youth. Read it here.

In the 1920s, Hollywood beckoned and “The Dusky Demon” was featured in several films including “The Bulldogger.”

Pickett was roping wild stallions in 1932 when a bucking Bronc crushed his skull. His funeral was one of the biggest ever witnessed in Oklahoma and Will Rogers, on his radio show, eulogized his friend thusly: “Bill Pickett never had an enemy. Even the steers wouldn’t hurt old Bill.”

Credit: okstate.edu

His longtime boss and friend, Colonel Zack Miller of the 101 Ranch called him "the greatest sweat-and-dirt cowhand that ever lived." He also wrote an epic poem about the man and you can read it here.

In 1971 Pickett became the first African American inducted into the National Rodeo Hall of Fame. The Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame and Museum of the American Cowboy have followed suit.

Credit: Billpickettrodeo.com