She Dared to Wear Pants!

In 1895, when Vera McGinnis was only three years old, she jumped an irrigation canal on a burro named Croppie, and she was off to the races, literally. She won her first riding competition at age 13, then graduated to trick riding, bronc riding and bull riding. She invented the “flying change”—getting from one horse to another without touching the ground—and she won prize money on three continents, appearing in more countries than any other cowgirl. But her most amazing feat is that she was the first woman performer who dared to wear pants in the rodeo ring. McGinnis was inducted into the Cowgirl Hall of Fame in 1979 and the Rodeo Hall of Fame in 1985.