Sharon Braxton
You can’t explore the contributions of Black cowgirls without trick rider Sharon Braxton’s name coming up. As one of the first female African American barrel racers in the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association, she secured her place in history as one of the most decorated Black cowgirls ever.
“I wanted to be a competitor,” remembers the 74-year-old Sharon of her heyday in the
1960s and 1970s.
And that she became. “She first dabbled in English horse riding to improve her ‘core and seat,’ but her true passion was turnand-burn, three-barrel racing,” says niece Michele BraxtonNelson. “She often competed in jackpot barrel racing in local arenas throughout Southern and Northern California, and she even produced the Ebony And Ivory Rodeo at the Burbank Equestrian Center in 1983.”
Over the course of her 30-plusyear career, Sharon also awed audiences as the first—and only— female announcer at the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo, and at the Frontier 101 rodeo.
Retired since 2000 and now a Fontana, California, grandmother of five with one great-grandson, Sharon says her deep love for the sport has never diminished. The elation and joy she felt in her competition days remains unmatched. “I saw the white girls riding, and I wanted to ride, too. I said to myself, ‘If they can do it, I can do it, too.’ ”
A West Virginia native, she headed to Southern California in the late 1960s as a single mom to take a job with the Pacific Bell phone company. She bought a horse with her first paycheck and the rest, as they say, is history.
Sharon, who was presented with the first annual Trail Blazer lifetime achievement award at the G Look Cowboy Ball in 2019 for her contributions to the equine industry, attributes much of her career success to the soulful connection she’s always shared with animals, especially her horses.
“They’re massive animals, but they really are kindhearted if you do them the right way,” she says of her horses. “They respond to kindness; you get more out of them through kindness than people abusing them and forcing them to do things.”
Sharon says she misses competing but now enjoys mentoring young talent, including Michele. “Don’t be discouraged; we all have our good and bad days,” she tells the younger Black women aspiring to follow in her footsteps. “You’ve got to keep moving forward, because if you give up, then you’ve lost.”