Fannie bonded early to the ranching way of life. She wrote: ‘If there is a horse in the zodiac then I am sure I must have been born under its sign, for the horse has shaped and determined my whole way of life.’ By age 6, Fannie owned her own pinto horse. (She favored pintos her whole life.) In the summer of 1903, she earned her first money from a crowd that enjoyed watching her ride a wild, white stallion so much that they dropped coins into a hat. By 1904, she had earned her first ‘Women’s Bucking Horse Champion of Montana’ title. Fannie had learned to ride like a man. She rode’slick saddle’–one rope, one hand free. Some women bronc riders rode with two reins and hobbled, which meant the stirrups were tied underneath the horse’s belly. Once the rider put her feet into the stirrups, it was like being tied on. The rowels on the spurs attached to her boots were tucked into the cinch. Fannie thought this practice too dangerous. She wrote: ‘Mine is the reputation of being the only woman rodeo rider who rode her entire career unhobbled. I confess it is a record I am proud of!’

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The Steeles continued rodeoing until 1925. That year marked Fannie’s 20th year as a rodeo performer. Her last professional ride occurred at the Bozeman Round Up. She and Bill had sold the ranch they had purchased south of Helena near Jackson Creek in 1919. The wacky life of clowning in the bull arena had taken a heavy toll on Bill; Fannie, too, felt a few twinges in her bones.

They had moved from the Helena area to Arrastra Creek, near Lincoln, Mont., and started an all-pinto pack-string outfit. When Bill died in 1940, Fannie continued the business, enduring many winters in isolation, seeing only her favorite pintos and faithful dogs. She marked more than 40 years packing dudes and hunters into Montana’s wilderness. In 1965, she moved to a cabin that had been built in 1903 by her sister and brother-in-law, Carrie and Joe Hilger. The cabin, not far from the original Sperry ranch, was located beneath Bear Tooth Mountain near the Missouri River.

In 1974, at age 87, Sperry Steele left her horses for the last time and entered a Helena rest home. Of this time in her life, she wrote: ‘I can leave the range, since I have loved and had a full share of life on it; I can quit the ranch and ranch house and my souvenirs, but I hate like hell to leave my pintos behind!’ On December 11, 1975, she was inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and given a luncheon in her honor in Oklahoma City. Three years later, she was inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame, becoming the first Montana cowgirl to join that elite group of women.

Aged 95 and still the ‘Lady Bucking Horse Champion of the World,’ Fannie Sperry Steele died on February 11, 1983. ‘I have never tired of rodeo in my life,’ she had written. ‘I have never seen one show too many, be it good, bad or middlin’. I hope there’s an arena in Heaven…that’s where you’ll find me…Fannie Sperry Steele.’

This article was written by Lenore McKelvey Puhek and originally appeared in the August 1996 issue of Wild West. For more great articles, order your subscription of Wild West magazine today!

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