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That’s Bonnie McCarrol, caught in a fall that looked like it was about to break her neck. It didn’t. But she would not always be so lucky.
Born Bonnie Treadwell in Boise in 1897, she grew up on her grandparents’ 2,000-acre ranch. She could ride any tame horse by the time she was 10. She started riding broncs in 1915 when she entered her first rodeo in Vancouver, Washington.
She met and married Frank McCarroll that same year. They would quickly become famous on the circuit as the rodeo couple from Idaho. Frank was born in Minnesota, but didn’t stay there long. He became a boxer, a wrestler, and then a bulldogger. He broke the world record for bulldogging while competing in Boise in 1913. He and Bonnie spent winters in Idaho, then travelled the circuit together every summer.
Bonnie’s first big win came her first year out, when she took first place in women’s bronc riding at the Pendelton Round-Up.
You had to look twice to even see her on top of a horse exploding out of the gate. She was a tiny thing, never weighing more than 112 pounds. She once said, “I don’t have to diet or attend reducing salons or do rolling exercises to keep slim, nor starve to death to wear those boyish-cut things the fashion kings are handing out now.”
She wasn’t some tough woman made of calluses and cactus, though.
“I like pretty clothes. I like to sew and do all sorts of feminine things,” she said. “But I do swim and engage in all sorts of athletics to keep myself in trim for the roundup season.”
Frank McCarroll said she was “the best little cook in the world and some dressmaker, too.”
Looking good was part of the act for Bonnie.
Born Bonnie Treadwell in Boise in 1897, she grew up on her grandparents’ 2,000-acre ranch. She could ride any tame horse by the time she was 10. She started riding broncs in 1915 when she entered her first rodeo in Vancouver, Washington.
She met and married Frank McCarroll that same year. They would quickly become famous on the circuit as the rodeo couple from Idaho. Frank was born in Minnesota, but didn’t stay there long. He became a boxer, a wrestler, and then a bulldogger. He broke the world record for bulldogging while competing in Boise in 1913. He and Bonnie spent winters in Idaho, then travelled the circuit together every summer.
Bonnie’s first big win came her first year out, when she took first place in women’s bronc riding at the Pendelton Round-Up.
You had to look twice to even see her on top of a horse exploding out of the gate. She was a tiny thing, never weighing more than 112 pounds. She once said, “I don’t have to diet or attend reducing salons or do rolling exercises to keep slim, nor starve to death to wear those boyish-cut things the fashion kings are handing out now.”
She wasn’t some tough woman made of calluses and cactus, though.
“I like pretty clothes. I like to sew and do all sorts of feminine things,” she said. “But I do swim and engage in all sorts of athletics to keep myself in trim for the roundup season.”
Frank McCarroll said she was “the best little cook in the world and some dressmaker, too.”
Looking good was part of the act for Bonnie.
A publicity shot of Bonnie.
Bonnie was one lady rider who rode her broncs without hobbling the saddle stirrups. Some events required it, but she rode just like the men when she could. “We cowgirls have butted in on a so-called strictly man’s game–and if to ‘play’ on the hurricane deck on a sun-fishin’, whirlly-giggin’, rearin’-up, fallin’-over-backward, squallin’, bitin’, strikin’, buckin’, roman-nosed cayuse ain’t a he-man’s game, there never will be one–still, as I say, we cowgirls that like the game well enough to play it should play it just like the cowboys do. Why, I’d feel insulted…if I was told to tie my stirrups down!”
Bonnie won a lot of trophies in her day. She and Frank exhibited them in the show window of a Boise hardware store in 1924, including the Lord Selfridge Trophy she won in London at the International Rodeo Championship. That’s her holding it below.
Bonnie won a lot of trophies in her day. She and Frank exhibited them in the show window of a Boise hardware store in 1924, including the Lord Selfridge Trophy she won in London at the International Rodeo Championship. That’s her holding it below.
Every story has an end. Sadly, Bonnie’s was not a happy one. She and Frank planned to retire and settle in Boise after the 1929 Pendleton Roundup.
She drew a horse named Black Cat. They took the blindfold off the horse. He stumbled and fell, then tried to get his bearings and fell again into a forward somersault. That flipped the saddle, putting Bonnie beneath him with her left boot caught in the stirrup, hanging head down. Black Cat jumped six times, banging her head in the dirt each time before her boot came off, releasing her.
Bonnie McCarroll suffered a spinal injury and developed pneumonia. She died 11 days later in the Pendleton hospital. She is buried in Morris Hill Cemetery in Boise.
Frank, the world champ, did retire from bulldogging. He ran unsuccessfully for sheriff of Ada County in 1932. Then he found a second career. Frank McCarroll became a movie cowboy, appearing in 159 westerns. He passed away in 1954 and is buried in the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Hollywood Hills.
She drew a horse named Black Cat. They took the blindfold off the horse. He stumbled and fell, then tried to get his bearings and fell again into a forward somersault. That flipped the saddle, putting Bonnie beneath him with her left boot caught in the stirrup, hanging head down. Black Cat jumped six times, banging her head in the dirt each time before her boot came off, releasing her.
Bonnie McCarroll suffered a spinal injury and developed pneumonia. She died 11 days later in the Pendleton hospital. She is buried in Morris Hill Cemetery in Boise.
Frank, the world champ, did retire from bulldogging. He ran unsuccessfully for sheriff of Ada County in 1932. Then he found a second career. Frank McCarroll became a movie cowboy, appearing in 159 westerns. He passed away in 1954 and is buried in the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Hollywood Hills.
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