06/24/2026
She was the youngest of 24 children on a Nebraska ranch. She became the greatest rodeo cowgirl who ever lived.
Born September 1, 1902 in Cody, Nebraska, Barbara Inez Barnes was so small and so quick as a baby that her father nicknamed her Tadpole. The name shortened to Tad and stuck for life. Growing up the youngest of two dozen children on a pioneer ranch she learned to ride horses before she could properly read. She won her first steer riding contest at just 14 years old. During World War I as a teenager she rode bulls down the main streets of Cody to raise money for the Red Cross — not baking pies or knitting socks like other girls her age. Bulls. Down main street. At sixteen years old.
By 19 she had joined California Frank's Rodeo Company as a bronc rider traveling through Mexico. Then came the moment that changed everything. She encountered a troupe of Cossack trick riders who taught her their art — and discovered a talent so natural and so extraordinary that audiences could barely believe what they were watching. Handstands on a galloping horse. Hanging upside down from a leather strap at full speed. Crawling completely under the horse's belly and coming up the other side. Standing straight upright with arms raised to the sky as her horse thundered out of the arena.
She won the trick riding championship at Cheyenne Frontier Days eight consecutive times. She won the all-around cowgirl title at Madison Square Garden three times in a row — retiring the legendary ten thousand dollar MGM Trophy permanently to her own hands. She competed and won in Boston, Chicago, Houston, Fort Worth, London and Sydney Australia. One journalist wrote simply — "She is considered the world's greatest woman rider."
In 1933 at the Chicago World's Fair she shattered her arm in a fall during a trick riding competition. She kept performing with her arm in a full cast for the next three years. Never once left the arena.
She was a founding charter member of the Girls Rodeo Association in 1948 — the organization that became today's Women's Professional Rodeo Association. She served on the boards of both the PRCA and the Rodeo Historical Society. She rode broncs competitively until 1964 at the age of 62. She became the first woman ever inducted into the National Rodeo Hall of Fame in 1967. Then the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame in 1978. Then the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 1979 — making her the only person in history ever honored by all three rodeo halls of fame.
She passed away February 23, 1990 at age 88 in the Fort Worth home she had built with her husband Buck back in 1925. In her will she established the Tad Lucas Memorial Award to honor women who excel in Western heritage — a final gift to the sport she gave her entire life to.
They called her the First Lady of Rodeo. The greatest cowgirl of all time. A woman who rode bulls as a teenager to serve her country and never slowed down for the next seven decades.
That was Tad Lucas. 🤠🎀🐴
