PRESCOTT, ARIZONA, UNITED STATES
07.10.2025
Story by Alicia Armendariz, Photos by Kayla Christenson
Cronkite News
PRESCOTT – The World’s Oldest Rodeo is no misnomer. The Prescott Frontier Days event is just that, and for its 138th anniversary, it is celebrating the women that dedicate their life to the rodeo lifestyle.
“There’s a lot of badass women in the sport,” said Miah Bryant, Team Leader of the Riata Ranch Cowboy Girls. “I feel as though (women) are kind of taking over and joining more male-dominated sports, and it’s really cool to see that it’s breaking that barrier a little bit.”
If there was a specialty act more qualified to help celebrate women in rodeo, it would be the daredevilish trick-riding performances that the Riata Ranch Cowboy Girls do. Specialty acts keep the crowd entertained between different rodeo events.
Based out of Three Rivers, California, at Riata Ranch International, the Riata Ranch Cowboy Girls have a rich history of 68 years training women in Western arts. The goal of the program is to help young women grow up to be full of integrity, confidence and grit.
The Cowboy Girls are led by executive director and manager Jennifer Nicholson, with team members Miah Bryant, Edyn Blum, Ava Blum, Mellody Reis, Ava Davis and Aubrey Ottoway. The girls range from ages 13 to 25.
“One of the biggest things is you learn how to fail,” program director and former team member Spencer Rose Coughlin said. “Which sounds harsh but in life, you’re going to fail. What do you do when you fail? You have to pick yourself back up and keep going and you can take those lessons with you… it teaches you work ethic.”
The team members have plenty of space to learn life lessons away from home as the team makes cross-country trips to perform in rodeos. Their expertise is in trick riding, an equestrian sport that entails acrobatic stunts while the horse is in motion, and trick roping, which is the skillful manipulation of a lasso into patterns and movements.
Preparation is crucial, as there is little room for error when a 1,100-pound horse is running down the side of a riding ring. But sometimes, it isn’t just the safety of the girls that they have to look out for.
“(Horses) obviously can’t tell you what’s wrong with them,” Bryant said. “Horses can hurt themselves anywhere … things happen and injuries happen. It is like a super stressful situation. … We only had short notice.”
Remington is the Cowboy Girls’ most seasoned horse, at the impressive age of 18. Right before their second night’s performance, the girls noticed Remington was favoring one of his legs, causing him to experience lameness.
Lameness is a broad term for a horse injury, and the type of remedies they used to nurse Remington were ice compresses and liniment, which is a medication that goes directly on the skin of a horse to relieve sore muscles and joints.
The late decision to keep Remington out of the show caused the team to run up a new script of their tricks for the night to the rodeo’s announcer. Even with the last-minute commotion, the Cowboy Girls had a successful second night performance, Bryant said.
“Responsibility starts very early on,” Nicholson said. “I’m very keen on making sure they look at the details, which starts with chores. To me, being responsible and knowing what to do builds confidence.”
