Put Your Money on Fannie

Oil on Old Barn Wood
20″ x 16″
$700
Contact to Purchase

“MISS FANNIE SPERRY WINNING 4 MILE RELAY

RACE TIME 9 MIN. 42 SEC – 8 CHANGES OF HORSES”

When or where this race was held has been forgotten by her elderly niece, Viola Sperry; but Viola did describe the excitement of the race in which her aunt beat Christine and Buff, last names forgotten, too. Fannie was hired by the Capital Stock Food Company in 1904, when she was just 17, to spend the summer racing as one of the Montana Girls relay team. The team traveled the state performing this new and novel event where the contestants, always dressed lady-like had to change their saddles from one horse to the next between each lap. Since it was considered improper for the fair female sex even to get close to a rodeo or relay race, there are no women watching the race. They sat in clusters on hill-sides chatting, eating picnics and watching the little ones. Adding a little excitement for the males attending and also ensuring a financial success for the race, a betting booth was constructed near the grandstand. The events were indeed commercial successes with thousands attending them. Their popularity spread eastward, and a reporter covering their event at Madison Square Garden in New York City coined the term cowgirl. Since they did not rope steers, the riders protested and wanted to be called horsewomen, but the cowgirl term stuck. Finding racing in a floor length skirt hindering their riding abilities, the girls began wearing divided skirts which still looked like proper attire until they jumped on their horses. Then the fans could see the riders were racing in a pair of baggy, pleated pants. For this impropriety, one reporter wrote, “These cowgirls could hardly be called ladies.” One comment which inflamed Fannie after she won a race was, “If these women were men, they’d be the finest riders in racing.”