January 2018 32 By Jim Olson, ©2018 www.WesternTradingPost.com Tad Lucas was known for many years as “The First Lady of Rodeo.” She competed in the United States, Canada, Mexico, England and even Australia. She was an expert horsewoman who performed in trick riding, bronc riding, and relay racing. She was best- known for her “daring and courage” in the trick riding event. Born Barbara Inez Barnes on September 1, 1902, at Cody, Nebraska, she was the youngest of twenty-four children! Her parents were Lorenzo White Barnes and Hannah Garthside Barnes. She claimed her father gave her the nickname “Tadpole” (later shortened to Tad) because she never really crawled like other children as a baby; she just seemed to slither along. Before long, she moved from “slithering along,” to riding. She started a-horseback at such a young age, that later in life she could never remember a time when she was not a horsewoman.  She and her brothers rode colts from an early age and they often rode calves just for the fun of it. She participated in various informal contests and horseback races against other local ranch children and Sioux children from the area. Tad entered her first rodeo at the Gordon Nebraska Fair in 1917. She won the girls steer riding event. She was only fourteen. Tad had made up her mind to follow rodeo as a career after seeing her first one a few years prior. By the time she was twenty, she hired on with a Wild West Show. It was then she became a professional cowgirl. For a couple of years, she toured the United States and Mexico with a group of Wild West performers and rodeo cowboys. Along the way, she met James Edward “Buck” Lucas who also worked for the Wild West Show. The two were among a group of performers who were selected for Tex Austin’s Wild West Troupe to perform in London, England in June of 1924. While in New York City, awaiting departure, Tad and Buck were married. Their honeymoon was the voyage to London. It was also in London that Tad first debuted as a trick rider, exciting the crowds.   After returning from England, Tad and Buck built a home near Fort Worth, Texas. She would live there the rest of her life, raising two daughters along the way. From the 1920s through the mid-40s, Tad competed at just about every major rodeo across the country. She won titles at the Cheyenne Frontier Days in trick riding as well as relay racing and bronc riding. She also won at rodeos in Boston, Chicago, Houston, Fort Worth and even Sidney, Australia, to name a few. From 1928-30, Tad won the All-Around Cowgirl title at Madison Square Garden and was awarded the Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer trophy as a result—which remained one of her most prized possessions. Sometime in the mid-20s, Tad and Buck became partners in the Triangle Rodeo Company and produced shows for a few years. One of their most famous bucking horses was called Fiddle Face. Her favorite trick horse was a little black horse called Candy Lamb. A story once told by Tad: “Five Minutes to Midnight was once saddled for me in place of a black horse that looked like him. Jim Massey discovered the mistake just in time and suggested I forget the ride!” She also said, “In the early 1930s, at Madison Square Garden, a girl told a gentleman she was Tad Lucas. She asked to wear his coat because she was cold, but never brought it back. Next day, the police came looking for me!” Tad said they were big pranksters back in those days while killing time at the longer shows back east. She has told many stories of calling people at their hotels and pretending to be a reporter from the such and such newspaper, asking for an interview. The cowboys (or cowgirls) would get all dressed up in their best duds to go and meet the reporter at a certain spot, usually a cafe. When the contestant arrived, looking like they just stepped out of a western movie (of course that was very out of place back East), they would sit around for a while waiting on the reporter who never showed— all the while receiving a ton of stares from the other patrons. By all accounts, Tad was a woman of great humor, talented on a horse, and a person having plenty of spirit, courage and compassion.