Mabel Strickland

First Lady of Rodeo

A pretty little gal named Mabel Delong was born in 1897 near Wallula, Washington. Her parents were Mr. William F. Delong, a shoe shop owner and guest columnist for the local paper (The Wallula Gateway) and Mrs. Anna F. Delong. The Delong’s homestead is now under the waters of Lake Wallula, on the Columbia River, behind the McNary Dam—since 1954. 

Her father first introduced Mabel to horses, at about age three. She took to them immediately. Within a few short years, the young horsewoman was training with Bill Donovan, a local trick rider. In 1913, she entered her first rodeo, the Walla Walla Stampede and won the trick riding. After winning the next two consecutive years as well, she was asked by George Drumheller of “Drumhellers Wild West Productions” fame, to hit the road doing trick riding and relay races across the country. Her parents agreed to let her go on the condition she be accompanied by a chaperone. After all, she was a beautiful young lady—and just coming of age. So began the professional rodeo career of Mabel Delong. 

She was a petite gal of five-feet, four-inches and around one-hundred pounds. Newspaper accounts from the day called Mabel, “The Lovely Lady of Rodeo” and some said she looked more like a “Follies beauty” than a Rodeo Cowgirl.  Author and Rodeo Historian, Gail Hughbanks Woerner once wrote, “Her features were delicate, her hair was always done in the most attractive style and her western clothing fit perfectly and was always of the most flattering styles.”  She soon caught the attention of rodeo champion, Hugh Strickland of Bruneau, Idaho. The two were married in 1918.

After having a daughter (April) and an attempt at settling down to become Idaho farmers, the couple decided to hit the rodeo trail to earn money as they had about gone broke farming. Hugh taught his wife to ride broncs, rope calves and steers and even steer wrestling. The duo paid their debts with rodeo winnings, gave up the farmer’s life, and never looked back—they were making more money on the rodeo trail.

Mabel went on to become one of the most recognizable and popular cowgirls of the early days of rodeo. It has been said that she was the most photographed cowgirl of all. Photographers loved to take pictures of the lovely little lady as she competed in trick riding, relay racing, roman riding, steer and bronc riding and calf and single steer roping! She was also a Rodeo Queen and was likely to win at a number of different events on any given day. 

Mabel looked more like a model than a champion cowgirl, but her winning ways put her in tight competition with the cowboys. She could rope as fast as most of them and set several records during her time. (It should be noted here that before 1929, cowgirls competed right alongside the cowboys at most shows. Separate girls events were few and far between.)

There was a growing national concern back then over how competitive sports, such as rodeo, could harm women. Most cowgirls competing in those days were more of the brutish sort, not necessarily portraying the proper image of a lady. Few were delicate and feminine looking like Mabel. The debate even reached the small town (back then) of Pendleton, Oregon, where Mabel had been named 1927 Rodeo Queen. The following was written in her defense: "There is nothing masculine in her appearance and she does not wear mannish clothes. She dresses with excellent taste, whether in the arena or on the street." -The East Oregonian 1927

Without ever intending to, she was being mixed up into a women’s liberation movement. She responded to a newspaper reporter once, “I know you think I’m a paradox, but I belong in the saddle for I’ve been there since I was three. I love the open, dogs, horses, guns, the trees, the flowers...Still I love dresses and everything that goes with them. I can’t tolerate the mannish women anymore than I can stand the womanish man.” 

When asked about her and Hugh’s relationship she was quoted, “Now, here’s the way it is with Hugh and me: He’s a one-woman-man, and—well, I’m a one-man-woman. My home is my heaven. Hugh’s my husband, and that doesn’t mean maybe; he’s my manager; he’s my daddy sweet-heart and we’re pals right down to the heel of our boots.”

One of the most famous photographs of Mabel was when she appeared on the cover of the 1926 Cheyenne Frontier Days program, featuring her as a bronc rider, from the same rodeo in 1924. Amazingly, she was smiling and waving to the crowd while riding a bad bronc named, Stranger. She was the first woman ever to grace the cover of Cheyenne’s rodeo program.

In all her years of riding, she was only seriously injured once. Mabel was performing in trick riding at the Madison Square Garden “World Championship” rodeo. She attempted to pass under the horse's neck and grab the saddle on the other side as they went around the arena full-speed. Even though she had done this numerous times before, somehow, she lost her grip, fell beneath the horse and was trampled. She was severely injured and reported as "near death." She recovered however, and went on to continue her winning ways.

A few championships credited to Mabel include: Pendleton, Oregon; Cheyenne, Wyoming; Walla Walla and Ellensburg, Washington; Dewey, Oklahoma and Madison Square Garden, New York.

Once, when asked in an interview if she hoped her daughter, April, would follow in her footsteps, Mabel said, “I don’t want her to follow my game. It’s too hard for a woman, and then, maybe when she is old enough, there won’t be any contests.” 

Mabel was right, by the depression years of the 30s, rodeo opportunities for women had all but disappeared. It wasn’t until the formation of the Women's Professional Rodeo Association (WPRA) in 1948 that women began competing in all rodeo events once again. (Although this time it was only against other women, not men as well, like back in Mabel’s day.)

During the 1930s, Hugh and Mabel relocated to Hollywood to work in the movies as many rodeo cowboy from that day wound up doing. They were in high demand for bits in Western movies, which were becoming very popular. Mabel preformed stunt work and had minor acting roles in many films; her pinnacle part being in “Rhythm of the Range” with Bing Crosby. 

While filming a scene for “Rhythm,” a set was duplicated to look like the arena at Madison Square Garden—where she had been badly injured in 1926. As Mabel walked on set, she fainted in front of a gate looking just like the one where she had been trampled. She was rushed to the hospital where physicians reported a hemorrhage had reappeared at the site of the old wound! 

While living in California, Mabel, along with Bonnie Gray and Bertha Blancett, founded the Association of Film Equestriennes, an association of women stunt riders and actresses. Mabel had established herself as a sought-after movie actress and stunt woman.

In 1941, Hugh Strickland passed away from a heart attack and Mabel then remarried to a man named Sam Woodward. The couple lived in Buckeye, Arizona where Mabel served the Appaloosa Horse Club on their Board of Directors from 1949 through 1965. As one of the first women ever elected to the board, Mabel was active in both the local and national levels. She was respected by her colleagues because of her determination and extensive experience as a professional horsewoman. Mabel owned, bred and showed Appaloosas for many years after leaving the rodeo and Hollywood scenes.

She has been inducted into the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum Hall of Fame, the ProRodeo Cowboys Hall of Fame, the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame, the Pendleton Hall of Fame and the Cheyenne Frontier Days Hall of Fame.  Unfortunately, only the induction into Pendleton’s Hall of Fame happened during her lifetime. Today the Mabel Strickland Cowgirl Museum is active in Cheyenne, Wyoming. 

Mabel Delong Strickland Woodward died in 1976, at age 79, after a long battle with cancer. Her ashes were spread at her home in Buckeye, Arizona. She will forever be remembered as the first lady of rodeo.

Jim Olson (c) 2013

www.JimOlsonAuthor.com

Last Rodeo Pioneer

Bart Clennon

In sharp contrast with rodeos of today, back in 1945, Madison Square Garden’s, “World Championship Rodeo,” in New York was a grueling fifty performances over a thirty-day period! A man named Bart Clennon won the saddle bronc riding contest at that show. As a matter of fact, he won many bronc riding championships in the early days of rodeo; Reno, NV; Fort Worth, TX; San Angelo, TX; Burwell, NE; Red Bluff, CA; Salt Lake City, UT; Deadwood, SD, Miles City, MT; Kissimmee, FL and Boston Garden to name a few. Bart says, “I never kept any records, but I know that I made a living rodeoing for over twenty years.”

While his rodeo resume is quite impressive, what is even more notable is that he was the last living person of the original sixty-one fellows who signed the famous “Boston Garden strike document,” then walked out of performing at the rodeo in 1936. (Bart Clennon was born in Aberdeen, SD, 1910.)  This led to an eventual formation of the Cowboy Turtles Association (CTA) - the predecessor of the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association (PRCA). 

Clennon, lived for many years in the Tucson, AZ area, a few miles north and west of the back entry road to old Tucson Studios, with his two sons, Bart Jr. and Terrance. His family went with him during much of his career and they saw many things together. Not all that happened on the rodeo trail was glamour and nostalgia though, as is often reported. The family recalls a tragic event in 1946 when two Army bombers collided mid-air as they performed for the crowd in Great Falls, Montana during the state fair. Bart and a friend were working stock behind the chutes when debris fell everywhere, killing over twenty horses and at least eight men.

Bart once said about the early days of rodeo, “We didn’t always get paid for winning. Sometimes the winners were determined (unofficially of course) before the show even started. But other times when you did win, the contractor may not pay the prize money out. We were kind of at the mercy of the producer in those early days.” 

It was not all that bad however, as a matter of fact, most of it was good times and Clennon said about getting started in the sport, “Back in those days, you would work for those old ranchers and farmers and make maybe $1 per day. Then those old tightwads would deduct days when the wind blew too hard or it stormed and you couldn’t work. So when I won $35 dollars at my first rodeo, I was hooked.” That was Ash Creek, SD and the year was 1928. He went on to work for several different rodeos and wild west shows (there was not much difference between them at the time) and sometimes got on as many as thirty to forty broncs per week!

In part due to grievances listed above, in 1936, at the Boston Garden rodeo, cowboys who were fed up with the status quo of rodeo production at the time decided to stand up for themselves, demanding better treatment. It was not easy. First off, Colonel W.T. Johnson, the producer, had paid to ship most of the contestants and their horses to Boston by train from out west. He also had sponsored rooms for a good many, making most of the cowboys indebted to him in some manner. When the cowboys threatened to strike if certain demands were not met, he told them they would have to find their own way home if they did - he would do his best to strand them in the east.

Clennon was worried, but the cowboys stuck together and walked out on the first of thirty scheduled performances. Johnson attempted to put the show on without them, using grooms and stable hands to fill in. That night Bart, “...paid $2 for a ticket to the rodeo and sat in the stands next to Howard McCrorey. When someone would come out of the chutes us cowboys would holler. Ol’ Howard was hollering so loud that I hardly had to...he’d beller like a bull!” Things eventually worked out and the cowboys soon thereafter formed the CTA. “We called it the Turtle Association because we were so damned slow to start and finally stick our necks out,” Bart recalls with a smile. He signed up and was given card number 418.

Bart is proud of his involvement with the formation of what was to eventually become the PRCA. With a gnarled finger, he smiles and points to his name on a nicely framed copy of the original strike document and says, “They’re all gone. I am the only one left.”

Bart was known as “a cowboys, cowboy.” Casey Tibbs once told a magazine reporter that Clennon was, "One of the best bronc riders I ever saw, and I can't figure out why he never won the (world championship)." 

Clennon recalls many good times with the prankster Tibbs including riding to a rodeo in California with a group of top cowboys from the day, one of them was Bud Linderman. Tibbs was driving wildly, and when they arrived, Bud jumped out of the back seat and said, “Anyone who rides with that S.O.B is plumb crazy!” Bart and Casey were friends and it was an honor for Bart when he was inducted into the Casey Tibbs Rodeo Center in his native South Dakota in 1995. He was also inducted into the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum’s “Rodeo Historical Society” in 1996 and remained a PRCA gold card member to the end (believed to be the oldest ever). 

Clennon quit rodeoing when he was about forty - after receiving his second broken neck. He then went to work as a hard rock miner and was in such amazing shape, he passed for 28, which was the age limit for new hires. He later was in the hardware business and eventually retired from that in his eighties.

Bart would recall the many broncs he rode with an amazing clarity of mind, for a man of any age, much less 101-plus. He did this with friends and rodeo buffs who stop by and listen. However, he once said in an interview that the greatest accomplishment he ever had, “...was when I married Geraldine Parkinson...the family traveled with me all over to rodeos...” Clennon lost his wife in 1982. Then he was fueled on by the many cherished memories of traveling the rodeo circuit and being together with his family.

Men like Bart Clennon changed the game of rodeo forever. His story ended on the night before turning an official 102 years of age. A few days before, he came down sick one last time. The legend died only hours before midnight - he almost made 102.

1. Jim Olson 2012

www.JimOlsonAuthor.com 

In The Beginning...

There was Rodeo. It started as a contest between cowboys to see who was the best roper and rider.

    

Soon it evolved into ranches competing against each other to see who had the best cowboys - much like a ranch rodeo of today. Before long, organized events were taking place in towns like Prescott, Arizona which claims to have the world’s oldest rodeo (started in 1888) and Payson, Arizona who argues they have the world’s oldest continuous rodeo (started in 1884). Then you have Pecos, Texas who claims the right to the world’s first rodeo (1883) but history tells us that William F. Cody (AKA Buffalo Bill) staged his first Wild West Show (which also had rodeo events) in 1882 at North Platte, Nebraska. 

But wait! There is more; Santa Fe, New Mexico also claims the first rodeo based on a letter dated 1847 written by Captain Mayne Reid from Santa Fe to a friend in Ireland: "At this time of year, the cowmen have what is called the round-up, when the calves are branded and the fat beasts selected to be driven to a fair hundreds of miles away. This round-up is a great time for the cowhand, a Donny-brook fair it is indeed. They contest with each other for the best roping and throwing, and there are horse races and whiskey and wines. At night in clear moonlight, there is dancing on the streets." 

Many will argue exact historic dates of the sport, but none will doubt the birth of rodeo was a contest of the cowboy.

In the early 1900s, rodeos were largely unorganized and scattered. The events as we know them today were mostly acts mixed in with wild west shows - which were more common at the time than a rodeo, as thought of in today’s terms. As a matter of fact, rodeos and wild west shows enjoyed a parallel existence in the early days and one was really not much different than the other (they even had a lot of the same stars and contestants). 

Many towns held annual “rodeos” but these shows were more commonly known as cowboy contests, stampedes, frontier days celebrations and of course, wild west shows. The term rodeo was not widely used until organization started to infiltrate the sport (in 1929). While rodeo had become a way of life for a select few in its earliest days, there was no standard to the event schedule, rules, judging, etc.. You might have a steer roping sandwiched between an Indian relay race and a shooting exhibition. Then they might go on with saddle broncs and steer wrestling followed by the “chicken pull” and trick roping. It’s been said there were over a hundred different events or acts to choose from, including a unique event held each year at Chicago where mounted cowboys went to lake Michigan, were floated out on a barge, and were then forced off, having to swim their horses several hundred yards back to shore! The first one back was the winner. Buffalo Bill Cody obviously had the most recognizable wild west show, and his show was more act and less rodeo, but rodeos of the day were a lot more wild west show than you think of in terms of your typical rodeo today.

These shows were very entertaining and popular with the crowds. However, cowboys competing in these performances were not thought of like a modern independent cowboy athlete is today. The organizers thought cowboys should be happy with cowboy wages and payouts for winning events were reflective of this mindset. At the time, cowboy wages were about a dollar per day ($30 a month). So if a cowboy could win (or was paid) that much, or sometimes even up to $100 for winning an event, he ought to be happy - and most were. Many cowboy from back in those days have been quoted as saying that winning a hundred dollars or so at a rodeo was more money than they had ever seen at one time in their whole life and that is what got them hooked on the shows. There were problems with this system however.

Cowboys still had to pay an entrance fee, much like today, and the amount of fees paid by the contestants was not reflected in the winning payout. Then there was the problem of each producer or town having their own ideas of how the show should be ran and which events to include. There was little standard in judging the riding events and rules varied from place to place. Then there were always those few who worked the system to their advantage and sometimes winners were determined before the show even started! (Unofficially of course.)

Accusations of bribes and crooked judges ran high. The rodeo cowboy became disgusted with this situation over time. It took a while, but he finally realized he was the star of the show; folks paid to see him perform, and he was not getting a fair share. There were thousands of dollars being made on some of the bigger shows from ticket sales and contestant entry fees, but only a few hundred would be paid back to the winners. This was fine for a few, but it was starvation for the overall lot. Just enough was being paid out to keep them coming back, with hopes it would be their turn to win the next show; kind of like dangling the proverbial carrot.

All of this changed however in 1936. That was the year professional rodeo was born. Rodeo organization was actually started in the northern states in 1929 with the formation of the Rodeo Association of America (RAA). This association was made up of managers and producers and did not include the cowboy in decision making and therefore was often contentious, seldom recognized and eventually it was merged with the Cowboys Turtle Association (CTA). They called themselves “turtles” because they were slow to organize but eventually stuck their heads out. They were the first cowboys to have a say in how the show ran. In 1945, the Cowboys Turtle Association changed their name to the Rodeo Cowboys Association (RCA) and in 1975 it was changed to the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA).

It was Boston Garden, 1936, and the cowboys were fed up with one Colonel  William T. Johnson of Texas; promoter and organizer of major rodeos such as Madison Square Garden and the Boston show. While Johnson had a knack for producing spectacular shows and attendance was usually high, he refused to listen to the complaints of the cowboy. So they went on strike, demanded their entrance fees be added to the payout and that standard rules and judging be implemented. 

Johnson was livid and told the cowboys to leave the grounds; he would put on a show without them. As they rode out of Boston Garden, a-horseback, the press was there taking pictures. The press sympathized with the cowboys and the public was soon on their side. That night Johnson attempted to put on the performance using stable hands, grooms and wild west performers. The cowboys sat in the audience and booed. It became such a spectacle, with a poor performance, that the audience joined the cowboys in their disapproval. The Boston committee told Johnson to stop the show and work with the cowboys. Johnson said, “I’ll drive my stock into the bay before I give into their demands!” Cowboy Hugh Bennett, one of the strike organizers hollered, “We’ll saddle up and help you!”

Johnson eventually agreed to negotiate when the managers of the Garden told him to come to an agreement with the cowboys or he would be thrown out as well. Negotiations lasted throughout the night and into the next day, however, an agreement was finally reached. The seed of professional rodeo had been planted. There were sixty-one men who signed the original document which eventually led to the formation of the Cowboys Turtle Association that fateful day in Boston. Only one of those men remain alive at the time of this writing, Bart Clennon was a contestant at the Boston Garden show that October/November 1936. He turned 102 on November 5th, 2012. More on Bart soon.

(c) Jim Olson 2012

Lee Anderson

Lee Anderson, Vaquero!

Horseman of the Old School

Living historian, author and superb horseman, Lee Anderson, is a student - shall we say master - of the old Vaquero “Bridle Horse” methods. He jokingly admits, “I am probably the only Swedish vaquero you’ll ever meet.”

Born in Iowa, Lee has had a life-long affection for horses. He has ridden and trained in just about every genre of horsemanship, from Western to English and from the show ring to the pasture. He can drive two, four, six and even an eight-up team hitched to a wagon! He has trained and shown in reining, pleasure and trail and also worked with dressage, hackney, jumpers…and of course, the western cow-horse. His passion however, is the “Bridle Horse.”

For those who aren’t quite sure what a “Bridle Horse” is – it refers to a horse trained in the old Vaquero methods – methods not seen much in this country for 100-plus years. A layman will recognize a bridle horse as one which eventually ends up in the use of a spade bit. Many people are taken back by the spade and automatically assume it is a harsh bit based upon its appearance. Not true. In the wrong hands, any bit is harsh. Lee quotes, “All souls criticize that which they do not understand.” A horse trained in this method responds to a feather’s touch of the reins.

In the hands of a true bridle horseman, a well-trained bridle horse is pure poetry in motion. For example, it has been recorded that the old Vaqueros were big sportsman and loved to show off at festive occasions. One such game played went something like this: A hair was plucked from the horse’s tail and the “breakaway” in the reins was replaced with said tail hair. This meant if you pulled any harder than necessary to break the hair, your reins broke. The horse was then blindfolded and put through a series of intricate moves, showing its pure trust in the rider. For the finale, horse and rider ran full-tilt, straight at a solid wall. The team stopping closest to the wall, without hitting the wall or breaking the “breakaway hair” was the winner and the Vaquero considered a top horseman. (Before criticizing a contest such as this, keep in mind it was a different time, place and culture.)

When asked why old methods such as these are fading, Lee responds, “In today’s day and age, not many are willing to spend half a lifetime learning the proper methods of horsemanship so they can spend four or five years training a horse this way.” Lee is passionate about it however and says, “It’s like driving a high performance sports car. Whatever you want is there…and at a touch.

To a learned master such as Lee, he realizes every piece of the horseman and horse’s gear work intricately together to achieve an eventual result with the slightest of effort. He says, “The spade is a bit of signals. When properly used, a horse receives signals long before he ever feels the bit and responds before the bit is ever actually used.” Each piece of the tack and gear are a part of that signal system, not to mention the rider himself. Lee can pull the bridle off his horse and preform intricate maneuvers using nothing more than body language. Anderson uses a piece of string as a “breakaway” in his reins every day. Much like the old Vaqueros and their horsehair, if he uses more than just a slight tap of pressure on the reins, they break!

After many years of being fascinated with horses, Lee chose to concentrate on this old style of horsemanship because he felt it most in tune with the horse. After a lifetime of studying what makes a horse tick, Anderson has even written a book on the subject. Developing the Art of Equine Communications is all about how to communicate with your horse, from a horse’s understanding and point of view. In Lee’s opinion, the bridle horse style of horsemanship comes closest to that.

He studied horses and how they react to certain situations for over half a century. He noticed that most times, communications with a horse are approached from a human point of view, yet a horse can only understand things from a horse’s viewpoint. Lee has made it his life’s work to understand more from the horse’s view.

Lee has been known to spend hours sitting in a pasture full of horses just watching them. He studies their moves with each other in natural surroundings - how they interact together. Most people know, by nature, a horse is a “prey” animal, but few think of that when dealing with a horse. Man is, by nature, a predator and horses are easily scared of them. Lee is probably one of the best modern-day trainers who understands the philosophy of a horse, from the horse’s perspective. He felt compelled to write Developing the Art of Equine Communications to clear up some of the myths and misinformation out there.

The Bow

As a historian, Lee does a presentation called Four Hundred Years of Southwest Cowboys. He does this in any one of three different outfits: A 1750 Spanish Colonial Caballero, an 1850 Mexican Vaquero or an 1890 American Cowboy. For each look, he has all of the period correct clothing and gear for rider and horse. The outfit may change depending upon what the situation calls for, but the historical presentation is tailored to fit what the client asks for. Lee goes over the evolution of the cowboy from its origins, beginning with the Spanish Hacendado (rancher) of the mid-1500s up through today. The first brand laws were recorded in New Spain (now Mexico) in 1529 and Lee is well versed in the history of the Vaquero - Cowboy from then through today.

Lee says, “We must include the Spanish origins in the history of the cowboy because the Vaquero was rounding up, roping, and branding cattle more than 300 years before the first American Cowboy ever threw a leg over a horse. By 1800 a highly sophisticated Vaquero culture had reached its peak in what is now the state of California. To this day, no mounted herdsman on earth has ever achieved the elegance, the presence, the beautiful equipment, the exquisite horsemanship or the sheer artistry of the everyday working Californio.”

He has spent much time and research in getting his outfits correct for each time period as well. Everything Lee puts on he and his horse is either an authentic antique piece or a reproduction from the period, made by Lee himself. He says,  “The Vaquero was a flashy dresser. He was extremely proud of his status amongst his peers. Then, due to the influence of the emerging American Cowboy culture the Mexican Vaquero lost quite a bit of the elegance and finesse of the Spanish Colonial Vaquero but he never fully accepted all of the trappings and methods of the American Cowboy culture…these things are covered at length in a presentation. The heyday of the American Cowboy only covered about 20 years… The modern image of the cowboy is loosely based on the drovers that made the three month long (cattle) drives. The cowboy most people are familiar with today is purely a Hollywood creation. However, my preference just happens to be the real cowboys… and I am well aware of the difference between ‘reel cowboys’ and ‘real cowboys.’”

Besides having a life-long passion for understanding what makes a horse tick, and the history of the cowboy, Anderson is a study of human nature as well. He is extremely good-natured and has a wry sense of humor. Lee claims, “I intend to live to be 125 and not die from natural causes, but at the hands of a thirty-year-old, jealous spouse!” You gotta love a man past seventy with an attitude like that!

Jim Olson © 2012

www.JimOlsonAuthor.com