Thoroughly Modern Cowgirl

She grew up on Arizona’s famous Bar U Bar Ranch and has been riding and showing great horses ever since. Today, Laurel Denton lives the ultimate Western life while excelling in the sports she loves.

- Jennifer Forsberg Meyer

LAUREL DENTON FROWNED. Her horse wasn’t stopping as well as he ordinarily did. In the warm-up pen that day, along with other competitors, was the trainer who typically won this working cow horse class. Laurel rode over to him and asked what he thought. He made a suggestion or two, then left for the main arena, where he laid down a reining pattern and fence run that earned cheers from the crowd—and a big score.

“Then it was her turn,” recalls Tom Kirastoulis, owner of Chocolate Chic N Nic, the horse Laurel was riding that day at the Arizona National Quarter Horse Show in Scottsdale. “She was nervous and went in with a ‘Well, we’ll see how it goes’ attitude. Then everything she and the horse did was like a dream, the run of a lifetime, and she came out with this huge smile. She beat that guy, too—plus everyone else in the class. It was incredible. I tell you, that woman can ride with anyone.”

And so she can. Laurel Denton, a modern-day cowgirl who still lives on the sprawling ranch she grew up on, has been competing successfully for 50 years. The life she shares with her husband, farrier and photographer Barry Denton, blends the best of traditional Western ways and contemporary competitive spirit. One of the industry’s most respected horsewomen, Laurel is a multi-carded judge and a longtime volunteer on American Quarter Horse Association committees. Those who know her best, though, speak of the passion she has for what she does, and her kindness to all people and animals, especially horses.

And that’s where our story begins.

‘I Want a Horse With Laurel’