Dandies carry the mental and physical weight of CFD with grace

CHEYENNE — In the Year of the Cowgirl, nothing sets the tone for Cheyenne Frontier Days like the Dandies, the goodwill ambassadors for the “Daddy of ‘em All.”

“These young women represent rodeo, Cheyenne Frontier Days and the western way of life,” current Dandies Director Halley Redman said.

While the Dandies do attend several events throughout the year to represent CFD, their big moment during the rodeo is performing with sponsor flags, riding their horses out across the arena to kick off the events of the day.

While performing, generations of Dandies have carried both the mental and physical weight of the show and their sponsors, said fifth-year Dandy Mallory Smith.

“No matter which sponsor flag you’re carrying, you just have to keep in mind that you are representing that specific sponsor, and they are so important to the show altogether,” Smith said. “It’s kind of like mental strength and physical strength.”

Sponsor flags are subject to change every year. In the past, the Dandies have had as many as 20 young women carrying flags in a performance; this year, they have 10.

Even prior to having sponsor flags, Dandies still carried a great weight, both literally and metaphorically. When the group started in 1970, they carried 12 American flags.

“For their first or second year, (the Dandies) actually carried around American flags,” Redman said. “(The Dandies) were talking about the mental and physical weight of carrying around sponsor flags, but I could not imagine the mental and physical weight of (the group) carrying around 12 American flags.”

Redman was a member of the Dandies prior to being director and represents the multi-generational community of women who have taken on the task of being a goodwill ambassador. This is her second year as director, and she welcomes girls with open arms.

As a second-generation Dandies member, Smith has grown up around the sisterhood and camaraderie of the group. Her mother, Tiffany Smith, is an alumni of the program, and really highlighted the role of women in the rodeo for Smith.

“I just feel such a responsibility to the brave women who have come before me and who will come after me,” Smith said. “Particularly because my mom was also a Dandy, and I always just want to make her proud. I want to make (Dandies founder) Arlene Kensinger proud.”

Though many of the girls have grown up around rodeo, not all of the girls come into the Dandies with the full skill set it takes to perform. The number of girls growing up on ranches and trying out has decreased over the years, and now many Dandies are learning as they go.

“We’re noticing that, even though they’re not growing up on ranches, these are the types of women who are wanting to be putting in the work and the effort to be a Dandy,” Redman said. “... They have to persevere to get here. I think the types of people or types of young women that we are getting are just really high quality.”

When they were given their practice flags, first-year Dandy Mayalla Dussault said she wasn’t even sure if she could handle the weight.

It took intensive practice and dedication to be able to perform as well as she does now. Dussault specifically had to keep in mind the well-being of her horse, as he’s sensitive to her emotions, she said.

“If I get worked up, he’ll get worked up,” Dussault said. “I can feel, when I get worried about the flag, he’s like, ‘Is something wrong?’ … I just had to really get past that.”

The Dandies’ horses are key to a good show. They don’t always come to events, but they are always a part of the performance, carrying the girls and their flags. They even eat before the girls, and no two horses have the same diet, Redman said.

“Our horses are really like the entire athletes of the program; they carry us throughout the entire week, and they’re honestly our best friends,” third-year Dandy Sage Scoggin said. “We always want to make sure that they are in the best physical and mental shape that they can be.”

The responsibility these young women have to CFD, western culture, their sponsors, their horses and their alumni is something that they think about with every performance, several Dandies told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.

When traveling to represent the “Daddy of ‘em All,” Dandies are quickly recognized by their matching western attire. Even outside of CFD, the girls’ matching outfits and tight-knit bond demand attention from rodeo-goers of all ages. In the Year of the Cowgirl, that also means being role models for future cowgirls.

“I just think it’s really important to represent those past women, as well as inspire the future generation of cowgirls,” Mallory said. “I think the Dandies are a great way of doing that. We have little girls who will see us at parades or rodeos, and they’ll be like, ‘Oh my gosh, I want to be just like her,’ and we’re showing them that it’s possible to be just like us.”