b'Running the RaceBonnie LemaireA Cowgirl In A Cowboys WorldBy Betsy Nunnhowfastdouwannab@gmail.com, facebook.com/Willnunnp3, youtube.com/user/howfastdouwannabW hat would you say if IShe was a teenager when she met my dad after he had told you I know of a galcome back from the Marines. They got married when she that sacrificed a lot forwas 18 in 1966. She got her GRA (before it was the WPRA barrel racing in Arizona as wellin was the Girls Rodeo Association) card in 1968. She as worldwide and she is frommade the National Finals Rodeo in 1971. She had me in Wickenburg? I am speaking of none other than Bonnie1973 and took me to the barrel horse sale when I was two Lemaire who happens to be my mom and is a living icon, inweeks old. She sold Soda Sam, the big palomino horse my eyes, of our sport. I was lying in bed last night and I gotthat she had made the finals on and he was the high seller to thinking about her. Why not throw a tribute out aboutat the sale that year. She was a Turquoise Circuit finals her while she is still here and not after she is gone. Not thatqualifier for many years and the Turquoise Circuit champ she is going anywhere soon but it is pretty amazing just tofor five years. She made the short go at Tucson one year. think about all of her accomplishments to further so manyShe had run a 17.11 on a standard pattern and thought, associations and help barrel racing as a whole. Yes! I have done it! I have won the short go! Well, right after her, Jan Hansen went and she was a 17.10. What a I want to start my story with a little of her background. Myday that must have been! Jan Hansen, the world champ, mom was born in 1947 in Akron, Ohio. Her folks werentoutran her by one one-hundredth of a second! She had horse people. Her sister had a horse she used to ride but shemade the short go at Cheyenne as well. She said those was a few years older than my mom. When she was sevenwere some of her highlights. To make the short go at years old her dad got transferred from Sperry to Arizonathe big rodeos, not to mention making the NFR again so the family picked up and moved this direction all thein 1981 and missing it in 1972 and 1982 by a couple while leaving my Aunt Jackyes horse in Ohio. From therehundred bucks.Bonnie would ride everyone in the neighborhoods horses and ponies. She trained on the ornery ponies and had themLet me tell you what else she did. She served in every office working good at the gymkhanas. Then she would comein the AWPRA. She was a director in the WPRA for 6 years.school kids get to the high school rodeos and have no idea back the next day and they would have sold the pony. HerShe and some other very tenacious women fought for equalhow to pole bend. So thats when we finally got more than folks bought a mare for her when she was eight years old.money for the girls in the very male-driven sport of rodeo andjust a few good pole benders! Next, when she was about nine or ten and her folks boughtguess what? They won!! They got us equal money with the her a large pretty blue roan with a big white face. That marecowboys back in the late 80s. What a feat that truly was!SheShe was also a trailblazer in the NBHA as she was the first wouldnt let mom catch her and she couldnt saddle heralso won the Arizona WPRA card standings for four years. real successful Arizona director that made the 3D barrel races because mom wasnt tall enough. They gave $110 for her,fly. She used to have a big barrel race at the Arizona Veterans she sold her for $125 and she thought she had cut a fat hog.She packed me around with her to all the rodeos.TheMemorial Coliseum in Phoenix for quite a few years. The She said she was hooked after that sale. So began Bonniesyoung girls could enter and have their cards back then. I3D barrel races paved the way for the new way of thinking in horse selling adventures. Then she rode the neighborhoodwas truly blessed! I had a blast with my folks. I have beenthe barrel world. Everyone ran together. There were no more horses. Her neighborhood didnt have horses but theall over the states and Canada. I met so many great peopleclasses. The horse market started to embark on its new trend neighborhood next to her was where the rich people livedthat I call my friends because my folks made their livingwhere a horse didnt have to win first place to be a champion and they all had horses so she would keep them in shapetraining and selling barrel and calf horses and rodeoing. Myand to be worth some money. Not every horse can win first for those folks. She and her sister rode for Bill Porter inmom will tell you she loves the sport and loved the peopleand not every rider can ride a first-place horse hence the that neighborhood as well and they eventually worked atand that is why she served all the years she did.division style of placing a barrel race was making everyone his famous saddle shop too. From there she had an old guyrethink what they had standing in their barn.pack her and some other kids to the junior rodeos as theyHeres another fun fact that we learned the other day. Dean helped him at his stable off Northern Avenue in Phoenix.McKyntire told us at the Sherry Cervi Youth Race thatShe is a dang hand too. Theres no telling how many horses when he was in Wainwright, Alberta Canada he saw whereshe has fixed that someone else threw away. She loved them my mom still holds the record for the fastest time. I thinkand won on them. She can see a diamond in the rough. its stood for 40 something years! We laughed so hard. DeanI love that about her. Her life was about horses and she thought that was pretty cool. had many great ones. She and my dad sold a lot of good ones they would have rather kept just to keep food on the My folks took me to the junior rodeos as well. Thats wheretable. For that reason I got to ride so many outstanding she was the first pole director when she got them to havehorses. They taught me how to work hard and helped me pole bending. Her thought process was most of our highperfect my trade. I am forever grateful to them for that. God blessed me when I got my folks. They didnt sugar coat much of anything but if they told you that you did well you knew they meant it.Bonnie Lemaire is my mom but also my friend. She has always stood up for the underdog and for what was right in the rodeo world. She was a cowgirl in a cowboys world. Not everyone loved what she had to say but I guarantee they listened to her. She has and had a lot of good things to say and she always got her point across. She said what she meant and meant what she said. I am proud to be her daughter and I am proud of the things she accomplished. I love you, Mom. Thanks for teaching me a thing or two and thanks for teaching many others a few things as well. ArizonaRealCountry.com May 2021 35'