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to see the rodeo and I got no money.” The rider got a burlap sack, put the boy in it, and carried him inside the arena over his shoulder.
    During their stay in London, the cowgirls and cowboys were invited to several parties put on by English royalty—lords and ladies, princes and princesses. “They showed us the time of our life,” Marie wrote.
    One party’s theme was “Bucking Horse Palace.” Marie again met the Prince of Wales and danced with him. “We spent a lot of time talking,” Marie wrote, and she was able to meet the queen, who asked her to tell about the prince riding after the rodeo ceremonies in Saskatchewan in 1919. “It was a lovely afternoon,” Marie added.
    Parties, dances, and sightseeing kept them all busy and in awe when they weren’t riding. “Everything imaginable was to be seen,” she said. Marie also went to Paris to visit friends. “There was something new to see every day. Never too old to learn.”
    Marie is said to have spoken five languages: French, Belgian, Cree, and Russian, as well as English, and was described as having a French accent.
    The riders took several of the royals on a tour of the arena and chutes, showed them the horses and steers, and answered their many questions.
    The troupe was pleased with the “wonderful crowd of people attending the shows,” the smallest of which was around thirty-five thousand and largest up to one hundred thousand. Wembley Stadium was “the best stadium I’ve ever worked,” Marie wrote.
    After three weeks the show closed at Wembley, and Bea and Tommy Kirnan organized a show at the London Coliseum, then on to Dublin, Paris, and Brussels.
    The troupe set sail for home around the seventh of July, and according to a news story of the departure, “there were boisterous scenes when the large party of cowboys and cowgirls embarked at the Royal Albert dock. The cowboys took with them many souvenirs, including several pigs, 12 dogs, two turtles and a rooster.” Marie had also been given the gift of a horse by the Prince of Wales. She wrote she was happy to head “for the good old U.S.A. I was sure glad to come home once more.”
    As soon as Marie returned to the States, she and several others from the troupe set off for Cheyenne Frontier Days in Wyoming. She arrived one day late, and instead of riding one horse, she rode two. Crippled as she was from her London adventure, she nevertheless rode to the finish in a sensational battle on her broncs and won the Women’s World Bronc Riding Championship award.
    In quick succession the usual round of summer rodeos and stampedes followed. In Omaha a cowgirl was injured in the chute as she mounted the notorious horse Blue Dog, who reared and crushed her against the fence. Many men and women had attempted to ride Blue Dog and failed. Marie volunteered to ride the outlaw bronc. She mounted and rode him across the arena, proving once again that she could conquer the worst. Keyed up over the accident, the crowd went wild over Marie’s ride.
    In Great Falls in the summer of 1925, Marie was injured again. She had ridden a tall, rangy horse that gave her no challenge. She demanded to ride a “real horse” and made a bid for Scar Face after he’d hurled a rider to the dust.
    Catching her foot in the fence as the horse came out of the chute, Marie’s boot was torn half off. Off-balance now, she was thrown to the ground. The horse then whirled half around and lashed out at Marie lying on the ground, hitting her just above the eye and on her arm. A fraction of an inch closer, and her career would’ve ended.
    Marie would not give up, however, and the next day rode another bronc, using only one foot in the stirrup because of the injury to the other. The crowd hailed her as heroine of the day for her nerve and skill.
    Then, at a rodeo in San Antonio in 1928, she rode a sorrel, Wild Fire, who after three jumps,