Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1901-12-28
BUSTS BRoNCoS FOR A LIVING
a Diana of the Oregon Plains Who IA
as Expert as the Cowboys.

as Expert as the Cowboys.
East and West there are women drun-
mers, women lawyers, doctors and floor
walkers, but out in Woodstock, Or, there
is woman who busts broncos and rounds
up cattle for living, a cowboy in petit
coats, who has all the nerve and daring
of the pioneer of the plains.
She isn't the brawny Amazon, RIDING
astride in buckskin trousers, that might
be imagined. She is the reverse of thar
IA rather frail-looking woman, neither
tall nor short, slightly built, but 1.-THE
and muscular, with cool, determined gray
eyes and face tanned by outdoor life
She has modest tendency to disayow
being or doing anything extraordinary.
and she does the little things that are
inherently feminine just as well as any
other woman, perhaps better than some.
She can darn a tear or bake biscuits with
just as much ease as she can rope 4
steer, and at that she is as expert as any
of her cowboy neighbors.
Mrs. Minnie Thorpe Austin is the
woman bronco busters name. Her faith
er was Thomas Thorpe, one of the
shrewdest dealers who ever did business
in Oregon.
He had one Of the largest ranches in
the state and it contained some of the
widest horses and cattle ever offered for
SAFE. w TN Tue uUESeS anu cattle his
baby daughter passed her early life ana
she became proficient and daring horse
woman.
Several years ago it was noticed that
some of the wild horses from Tom
Thorpe's ranch were better broken when
they came up for sale than those from
any other ranch around. and presently
the secret came out. Miss Thorpe had
broken them in.
She had become used to seeing the cow
boys busting bronchOs, ponies for her
own use had occasionally recalled buck
ing feats of their earlier days and had
taught her the knack of sticking to the
saddle, and she had been fired with ambi-
ton to GO all that the men did with
wilder steeds.
First she tried a horse that had been
partly broken, then fercer animal, and
finally she was breaking i'll with ease
horses which had never before known
bride or rope. She disdained the Mex
can saddle the cowboys used and accom-
pished her feats in the conventional side
saddle and wearing n riding skirt, Il trick
few cowboys would care to attempt.
From the day she first mOunted an un-
broken steed Mrs. Austin has never seen
the horse she could NOT master. Since
that time she has had to earn her own
living and she has done it. from choice
by breaking in bronchos
She likes it, and when she isn't doing
IL lOE DuSlutoo SIiG IL uOil- II lDI ntr
own pleasure. She can handle cattle
equally well and not long ago she was
regularly employed by a firm of cattle
dealers to round up lunches of cattle
and drive them to the city.
In n recent carnival at Portland one
of the most attractive features to viS-
tors from the East was Mrs. Austin's
daring horsemanship. She jumped hur
1les. riding tandem busted bronchos and
did fancy tricks, and no other part of the
show was greeted with half so much
applause The applause was the heart
Ter because she plainly enjoyed the tasks
she performed.
She herself says that the enjoyment
which other women get out of milder
pleasures she finds in a rocking, swaying
saddle which threatens momentarily t.
she is riding succeeds in his efforts to
dismount her.-New York Sun