RIDE 'EM COWGIRL

Haney combines descriptions of rodeo events with profiles of contestants--especially high school best friends Sandy Smith and Diane Schot, competing for all-around Cowgirl at the Rocky Mountain All-Girl Rodeo at Loveland, Colorado, and Jeana Day Felts, nineteen, who travels with her cowboy husband and here wins the 1974 World Championship Barrel Rolling title in the only all girl event at the RCA rodeo in Greeley. As fitfully as any bucking bronc, Haney jumps from Jeana's religion which has given her a code to live by to an accident she had while driving her trailer to the discrepancy between cowboys' and cowgirls' purses; she never pretends to any depth beyond the on-the-spot, mike-in-hand interview. Strictly for fans.