Women buck trend, look to grow rodeo sport of ranch bronc riding

CALGARY, Alberta — Sophia Bunney launched the first time she tried ranch bronc riding, landing ''quite a ways away from the horse.''

''I'm very stubborn and I don't like being defeated,'' said the 18-year-old from Cessford, Alberta.

In other words, the teenager was hooked on a sport that pits women against bucking horses for eight seconds.

''I always kind of wanted to hop on a bronc,'' Bunney told the Canadian Press. ''In Grade 3, we did ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?' and I said I wanted to be a female bronc rider.''

Unlike saddle bronco riding, a rodeo mainstay, ranch bronc uses a regular western saddle — not a specialized one — and riders hang on with two hands instead of one. A hand is on a rein and the other on a strap wrapped around the saddle horn.

Pearl Kersey, who won the Canadian women's ranch bronc title over the weekend in Ponoka, Alberta., is president of Women's Ranch Bronc Canada and teaches it at clinics.

''I've got teenagers, 20-year-olds, 30-year-olds and this year a woman in her 50s. I was like, ‘You sure?''' Kersey said. ''She doesn't want to compete. She wants to try it before she gets too old. We have bucking machines. She doesn't necessarily need to get on a horse. They can go through all the drills and the bucking machine, and if they're comfortable enough, they can get on a horse.''

Getting used to it

It took a while for 19-year-old Blayne Bedard, who grew up cow riding in the Canadian Girls Rodeo Association, to master keeping her feet forward toward the horse's shoulders.

''If they come back, I'm like a pendulum and I just go head over teakettle,'' Bedard said. ''For the longest time, that was my biggest problem with riding ranch bronc and why I kept bucking off was because my feet weren't moving and they'd come behind me and I'd get lawn-darted right away.''

She's improved to the point where Bedard has competed in the last two Canadian championships.

''I like the look of it, too,'' Bedard said. ''You get cool pictures.''

One of the lessons Bedard picked up at a Kersey clinic had nothing to do with riding form — and everything to do with what goes inside a boot.

''I put baby powder in my boots every time before I ride, and I wear my mom's boots that are a size too big for me, because if you get your foot stuck in a stirrup -- which I've had a few times -- you need your boot to be able to come off so you're not being dragged by the horse,'' she said.

Exposure for the sport

Women's ranch bronc isn't part of the $2.1 million Calgary Stampede starting Friday, but women's breakaway roping will debut at the 10-day rodeo. Breakaway and barrel racing are the two women's events on a program that also features men's bull riding, saddle bronc, bareback, steer wrestling and tie-down roping.

The Ponoka Stampede adding women's ranch bronc to its lineup in 2022 was a big step forward, Kersey said. Inclusion in the Calgary Stampede would be another milestone.

''The ultimate is the same with girls in breakaway roping, which is getting into pro rodeos because that's when you get the big money,'' she said. ''We're way bigger with the added money than we were, but it takes time. ... It takes a while to get contestant numbers up.''

Kersey, 36, has qualified for the world finals July 19-20 in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where she won in 2019 and has twice finished second. Kersey intends to retire from competition after this year, but continue teaching.

One of her students, Calgary's Emma Eastwood, picked it up quickly thanks to years of riding horses and a stint as an amateur jockey. She attended Kersey's clinics last fall and this spring, and won an event in just her third time competing.

''It is difficult to try and think through your ride and hang on through all that adrenaline,'' said the 27-year-old massage therapist. ''Things kind of get a little blurry, and it's hard to process everything going on so quickly.''

Rodeo bucking events have traditionally been the domain of men. Kersey, Eastwood and Bedard say the cowboys have been welcoming, though Bunney's experience has been mixed. Kersey said she has heard from many.

''Women have come up to me and said, ‘Thank you for doing what you're doing.' They might not go into ranch broncs, but it just gave them the power in themselves to go pursue something that they wanted that they didn't think they could because they were women,'' Kersey said. ''Other girls tell me, ‘I saw you ride at Ponoka,' and they're like ‘I want to try it.' Sometimes it's a confidence-booster thing. Sometimes they want to see if they'll like it and some are like ‘Yeah, I'm doing this.'''