THE LAST RIDE OF BONNIE McCARROLL

AN ON-THE-SCENE ACCOUNT YOU’VE LIKELY NEVER HEARD UNTIL NOW.

- JUNI FISHER

Perhaps the best-known photo of a woman bronc riding is the 1915 image of Bonnie McCarroll by rodeo photographer Ralph Doubleday. Bonnie is shown upside down, ringlet curls flying as her head nears the hard-packed grass of Oregon’s Pendleton Round-Up arena for a landing that looks as if it could be a serious one. The bronc, a bay called Silver, is high in the air, shown mid-buck, ragged hooves flying.

A remarkable feature of the photo is the presence of a rope hobble, tied to the left stirrup of Bonnie’s bronc saddle, apparently broken or severed. Rope hobbles were used by some lady bronc riders as a way of tying the stirrups together, making it possible for a rider to wrap her legs around a bronc and ride out the storm. Free stirrups allowed the rider to rise and fall, spurring with each buck. Yet when a rider secured her feet in the tied-together stirrups, she was more or less locked into the saddle. Since one must fall “up” to fall off, the “up” was not as easy when the top of the foot could lock against the top of the stirrup.