A PRETTY RIDE WITH HOBBLED STIRRUPS 



Has Nothing On 



THE QUEEN OF REINLAND GRACING HER THRONE 



Perhaps no phase of the Round-Up produces quite the same 

 psychological sensation as the women's bucking contest, for at 

 its easiest it is hard and dangerous. Consequently the Round- 

 Up permits only the most skillful and proven cowgirl riders 

 to enter. But a few of those entrants ride "slick," that is ap- 

 proved form and without "hobbled stirrups." In fact in the 

 entire history of the Round-Up the women who have ridden slick 

 can be numbered on the fingers of one hand — Bertha Blancett, 

 Nettie Hawn, Fanny Sperry Steele and Tillie Baldwin. 



The rider is Prairie Rose Smith making a pretty ride on 

 Wiggles with hobbled stirrups, but hobbled stirrups or not it 

 takes courage and a splendid rider to stay these buckers. If you 

 doubt, try it. 



Few queens have vouchsafed to occupy thrones less secure 

 than that supreme one offered by the parliament of the Round- 

 Up each year — the world championship saddle of the cowgirls' 

 bucking contest. No cowgirl queen reined as completely or as 

 often as Bertha Blancett, who has over a period of five con- 

 secutive years ridden into three cowgirls' world's bucking cham- 

 pionships and into two hotly contested second places. 



Among the Round-Up horses she has ridden are Spike, Demp- 

 sey, Snake; at Cheyenne she rode the famous bucker Dynamite 

 and at the Calgary "Stampede" rode that equine devil Red 

 Wine which killed Joe Lemare. 



Bertha Blancett always rides "slick" and is not only one of 

 the greatest all-round horsewomen of the world, but the best 

 all-round range woman America has produced. She had the 

 remarkable distinction in 1916 of having come within one point 

 of winning the all-round championship on both cowboys' and 

 cowgirls' points, and would have done so, had not one of her 

 horses in the relay race jumped the fence. 



How did she learn? Why this daughter of a rancher from 



childhood was bred on the range — got her schooling on the 



barebacks of wild colts and took her domestic science lessons 



by making butter of her father's dairy ahead of time by riding 



her dad's milch cows nearly to aeatn. 



