EVENTS
Saddle Bronc Rider
Born in Illinois in 1894, A. H. “Hippy” Burmister decided to become a cowboy after seeing a rodeo in 1909 in Colorado. In 1910 his family moved to Wyoming, where he learned to ride. After one season with C. B. Irwin’s Wild West Show in 1912 (he performed by riding a buffalo), he entered his first bronc-riding competition at Bakersfield, California, in 1916.
From 1919 through 1925 Hippy Burmister was an aggressive competitor in the saddle-bronc event. In 1919 he placed first at Reno and at Los Angeles. In 1920 he took top money in Minneapolis and Los Angeles. Again in 1921, 1923, and 1924 he captured the title at Dillon, Montana; Weiser, Idaho; and Reno, and in California at San Francisco, Victorville, Chico, and Sonora.
When his parents moved to Los Angeles, he found work as a movie extra and stuntman from 1915 to 1923, appearing in silent films with Will Rogers, Hoot Gibson, William S. Hart, and Tom Mix. Hippy Burmister retired from rodeo in 1925 and ranched near Alturas, California, through the 1950s. He died in 1985.
