ALPENA, Mich. — Alpena Firefighter/Paramedic Abby Smith climbed aboard bucking stock during the Twisted P Rodeo at the Alpena County Fair, one of only a few women in Michigan competing in the women’s ranch bronc circuit.
Smith says she knows of just three female rough stock riders statewide. Bronc riding has a “thick and rich history,” Smith told the Alpena News, but women have only been welcomed back in the last decade after competing from the late 1800s until the mid-1900s, when participation ended following a rider’s death in 1929.
“It’s definitely a man’s world,” Smith said. “People kind of look at us like we’re crazy.”
Raised in suburban Rochester Hills, she gravitated to bucking horses rather than bulls and competes under the tagline “From burbs to broncs.”
Smith trained at a bronc school led by champion rider Brittany Miller, logging six practice broncs there and 10 more in competition across Michigan. After Alpena, her total rides will reach 18. New to the circuit but committed to growing it, she hopes more women will step in.
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