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Anna Lee Aldred
1921-2006
Inducted 2004
Adopted by Western Colorado Women Magazine
At the age of 18, Anna Lee
Aldred became the first woman in the United States to receive a professional
jockey’s license. Accepted into
the previously all-male profession when officials couldn’t find
any rules prohibiting women from racing, she also had to prove her ability
to handle a horse on the racetrack. From 1939 to 1945 – until she
grew too big at five feet, five inches and 118 pounds -- she was a tough
competitor who raced against both male jockeys and the women who followed
her example and became professional jockeys. The daughter of a horse
trainer and racer and sister of two famed rodeo riders, she won her first
pony race at the age of six on the amateur circuit in Montrose. After
leaving professional racing, she became a daring trick rider in prestigious
rodeos throughout the west. Until the age of 80 when she broke a hip,
she continued to ride, often working as a “ponyboy” assisting
jockeys at the Montrose fairgrounds and riding at the opening of the
annual fair. Aldred was inducted into the National Cowgirl Museum and
Hall of Fame in 1975 because she exemplifies the pioneering spirit of
the Western way of life. Aldred died on June 12, 2006.
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