EVENTS
Bronc Rider
Rodeo Trick Rider
Spirited, tough, and talented Vivian White once summed up her career as “just ridin’ buckin’ horses,” but she was too modest. Born near Enid, Oklahoma, in 1913, she grew up riding on the backs of plow horses. After seeing her first rodeo, she said to herself, “Fiddlesticks. I can do that. I always figured I could do anything the boys could do.” At age 14 she signed up to ride a steer at Cleo Springs, Arkansas.
After eight years of exhibition steer riding, Vivian White expanded to competitive saddle bronc riding. In 1937 she won the ladies’ championship at Fort Worth. A week later, at Madison Square Garden, she earned the title of World’s Champion Ladies Saddle Bronc Rider, a feat she repeated in 1941 in the very last ladies’ saddle bronc contest ever held at the Garden. In 1938 she took the trick riding honors at Cheyenne. After World War II she competed on the All-Girl Circuit.
One of the greatest cowgirls of her era, Vivian White was never bucked off a horse in arena competition. She died in 1999.
