Maier does bring in outside coaches, however. Cleaning stalls, stacking hay bales, catching horses and riding practice, he says, do more than workouts on StairMasters and Nautilus machines because the girls gain a sense of accomplishment. Maier eschews aerobic and weight training for the girls.
![girls of the golden west band girls of the golden west band](https://static.standard.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2017/11/29/13/spicegirls291117.jpg)
"Sometimes in the heat of the moment, you want to walk away. But now I love it." Kansas Carradine, 16, the daughter of actor David Carradine, agrees. "I hated it when I first came," says Louise McGee, 14. We want them to do it five times in a row."ĭespite the rigors of the program, few girls quit. "The girls have to stay calm, even when they are really nervous. "It's the emotions that really count," says Jennifer Welch, 31, the oldest Cowboy Girl and Maier's right-hand woman. Even at this early stage Maier is looking for Cowboy Girl potential, indicated by what he calls "mental fire" or "dedication, a willingness to work hard for what you want." Athletic ability and self-confidence help, but Maier also chooses girls who are shy and who aren't stellar horsewomen-if they have even the smallest spark of fire.ĭeveloping nerve is as important as perfecting technique because trick riding is dangerous, and the pressure of performing is strong. He begins with local girls as young as three years old and gives them basic riding lessons once a week. Maier builds his athletes from the ground up. "You can do better than that! Ya big luppy!" Maier, who is courtly until he gets mad, gets mad. Thud! One leg slams into the horse's neck. She does a flip off the horse's back.Īnother girl runs. They place a small trampoline by the horse's side and line up 25 feet away. In 1967 Dolly Good died, and Millie Good followed at the age of 80 in 1993.In a small, dusty yard at Riata Ranch, six girls, aged 10 to 20, are about to practice vaulting onto and off a standing horse. After this, they occasionally performed and recorded again in 1963. They also later moved from WLS to WLW in Cincinnati, Ohio. Toward the end of the 1940s, their careers faded. Later in their careers, they performed on more television shows such as Renfro Valley Barn Dance and Boone County Jamboree. The Girls of the Golden West still remained a popular group, with other songs like "Lonesome Cowgirl" and "Silvery Moon on the Golden Gate", which became their signature tune. They would also inspire a short-lived girl group, The Davis Sisters. There were few women then in the genre, excluding Patsy Montana, The girls would inspire a whole new breed of country music singers such as Kitty Wells, Jean Shepard and Patsy Cline. Girls of the Golden West were pioneers in country music at the time. They would normally wear cowgirl western-style outfits for their appearances on television programs. However, this was all part of the image of the "Western Music" craze. They would claim they were from Muleshoe, Texas, though in reality they were farming girls from Illinois. The Girls also had kept up a fictitious story of their life.
![girls of the golden west band girls of the golden west band](https://derpicdn.net/img/2019/12/28/2231725/rendered.png)
The Girls of the Golden West were one of the most popular acts of the 1930s and 1940s, and were one of the few women then found performing country music. They started singing songs such as "Put My Little Shoes Away" and " Ragtime Cowboy Joe". They named themselves the Girls of the Golden West, taken from the opera by Puccini, The Girl of the Golden West.
![girls of the golden west band girls of the golden west band](https://mikescottwaterboys.com/images/news/GoodLuckSeeker_AlbumCover.jpg)
They first started recording for Bluebird Records in July 1933. Bradley Kincaid, also at WLS, later worked with the girls in their recordings. In 1933, they moved to the WLS National Barn Dance, then the home of country music pioneers Gene Autry and Patsy Montana. The Girls of the Golden West first entertained family and friends before they worked on a radio station in St.