Changes

Mayme Connell taught her daughter to ride a horse at the age of two. To keep up with the child, she designed a leather harness and tied it to a tree near the house to anchor Georgie so that she would be in view.<ref name=elko/> By the time she was five, Georgie had her own horse, "Buster," whom she could mount by feeding the animal a biscuit. As Buster lowered his head to eat the biscuit, Georgie would climb on his head and neck and ease down to his back.<ref name=gsicking/>

Mayme Connell taught her daughter to ride a horse at the age of two. To keep up with the child, she designed a leather harness and tied it to a tree near the house to anchor Georgie so that she would be in view.<ref name=elko/> By the time she was five, Georgie had her own horse, "Buster," whom she could mount by feeding the animal a biscuit. As Buster lowered his head to eat the biscuit, Georgie would climb on his head and neck and ease down to his back.<ref name=gsicking/>

Her parents divorced by the time Sicking was in her late teens. She dropped out of school. Her sister, Emma Jane Brocchini, lived with their mother. Another sister, Ida, married. Her younger brother, Clyde, procured a ranch job. At first Georgie could not find a ranch job because she was female: "It was a country where they didn't ride mares, and they didn't hire women."<ref name=fallon/>

Her parents divorced by the time Sicking was in her late teens. She dropped out of school. Her sister, Emma Jane Brocchini, lived with their mother. Her younger brother, Clyde, procured a ranch job. At first Georgie could not find a ranch job because she was female: "It was a country where they didn't ride mares, and they didn't hire women."<ref name=fallon/>

==Cowboy culture and poetry==

==Cowboy culture and poetry==

Sicking prefers to be called a cowboy, rather than a rancher, because for years she did the same kind of work as her male counterparts: "Since I was a little girl, I knew I was born to be a cowboy ... Back then they thought women couldn’t do it, and they weren’t supposed to do it. Women were meant to stay indoors."<ref name=elko>{{cite web|url=http://elkodaily.com/news/local/cowgirl-georgie-sicking-no-apologies-for-a-life-well-lived/article_b6d77a84-c9dd-53d7-8589-a3c7b28f070a.html|author=Judy Andreson|title=Cowgirl Georgie Sicking: No apologies for a life well-lived|date=, January 28, 2010|publisher=''The Elko ([[Nevada]]) Daily''|accessdate=January 30, 2014}}</ref>

Sicking prefers to be called a cowboy, rather than a rancher, because for years she did the same kind of work as her male counterparts: "Since I was a little girl, I knew I was born to be a cowboy ... Back then they thought women couldn’t do it, and they weren’t supposed to do it. Women were meant to stay indoors."<ref name=elko>{{cite web|url=http://elkodaily.com/news/local/cowgirl-georgie-sicking-no-apologies-for-a-life-well-lived/article_b6d77a84-c9dd-53d7-8589-a3c7b28f070a.html|author=Judy Andreson|title=Cowgirl Georgie Sicking: No apologies for a life well-lived|date=, January 28, 2010|publisher=''The Elko ([[Nevada]]) Daily Free Press''|accessdate=January 10, 2021}}</ref>

Sicking considered herself a "top hand," which she describes as

Sicking considered herself a "top hand," which she describes as

-- and then they had to respect my ability. And that was true. ... I watched how I dressed, how I walked, how I talked. There was times I could be deep, and there was times when I wanted to laugh but I had to keep a stone straight face. ...<ref name=fallon>{{cite web|url=http://www.americanfolk.com/bgq/features/feature2/|title="The Last of the Old-Time Cowboys": Interview with Georgie Sicking, Fallon, Nevada, August 22, 1992|publisher=americanfolk.com|accessdate=January 30, 2014}}</ref></blockquote>

-- and then they had to respect my ability. And that was true. ... I watched how I dressed, how I walked, how I talked. There was times I could be deep, and there was times when I wanted to laugh but I had to keep a stone straight face. ...<ref name=fallon>{{cite web|url=http://www.americanfolk.com/bgq/features/feature2/|title="The Last of the Old-Time Cowboys": Interview with Georgie Sicking, Fallon, Nevada, August 22, 1992|publisher=americanfolk.com|accessdate=January 30, 2014}}</ref></blockquote>

Georgie married Frank H. Sicking (1909-1974), a native of Muenster in Cooke County north of [[Dallas]], Texas.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://records.ancestry.com/Frank_H_Sicking_records.ashx?pid=108557985|title=Frank H. Sicking|publisher=records.ancestry.com|accessdate=January 31, 2014}}</ref> The two operated several ranches in Arizona, California, and [[Nevada]] before they settled down on an unimposing spread near Fallon in Churchill County  in western Nevada. There the couple reared their three children. Her poem "Blood, Sweat, and Tears" highlights the difficulty of operating a ranch without financial backing and inheritance.<ref name=elko/> Georgie described Frank as a "real cowboy" who even performed household chores while she was out riding the herd: "He was always there when the chips were down."<ref name=gawatkins>{{cite web|url=http://www.rangemagazine.com/archives/fall2004/confessions.htmauthor=Gary Watkins|title=Confessions of Red Meat Survivors: Georgie Sicking|publisher=''Range Magazine''|date=Fall 2004|accessdate=January 30, 2014}}</ref>

Georgie married Frank H. Sicking (1909-1974), a native of Muenster in Cooke County north of [[Dallas]], Texas.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://records.ancestry.com/Frank_H_Sicking_records.ashx?pid=108557985|title=Frank H. Sicking|publisher=records.ancestry.com|accessdate=January 31, 2014}}</ref> The two operated several ranches in Arizona, California, and [[Nevada]] before they settled down on an unimposing spread near Fallon in Churchill County  in western Nevada. There the couple reared their three children. Her poem "Blood, Sweat, and Tears" highlights the difficulty of operating a ranch without financial backing and inheritance.<ref name=elko/> Georgie described Frank as a "real cowboy" who even performed household chores while she was out riding the herd: "He was always there when the chips were down."<ref name=gawatkins>{{cite web|url=http://www.rangemagazine.com/archives/fall2004/confessions.htm|author=Gary Watkins|title=Confessions of Red Meat Survivors: Georgie Sicking|publisher=''Range Magazine''|date=Fall 2004|accessdate=January 30, 2014}}</ref>

Sicking was widowed at the age of fifty-three when her husband, Frank, was killed in a wood-cutting accident. Mrs. Sicking then ran her own herd of sixty Brahman [[cattle]] and frequented livestock auctions. When the Nature Conservancy purchased the water rights surrounding her Nevada land, she sold the ranch and began to spend her time in poetry, a pursuit that she had first began when she was seventeen. In her lifetime she has penned some seventy poems and has received many awards. Nevada honored her for having ridden 100,000 miles on horseback and for being the first resident of the state inducted into the Cowgirl Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas. She received the "Gail Gardner Award" for outstanding work in the genre of cowboy poetry.<ref name=gawatkins/> This honor is named for Gail I. Gardner (1892-1988), an Arizona cowboy who was later the postmaster of Prescott, Arizona.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cowboypoetry.com/gardner.htm|title=Featured at the Bar D Ranch: Gail Gardner|publisher=cowboypoetry.com|accessdate=January 30, 2014}}</ref>

Sicking was widowed at the age of fifty-three when her husband, Frank, was killed in a wood-cutting accident. Mrs. Sicking then ran her own herd of sixty Brahman [[cattle]] and frequented livestock auctions. When the Nature Conservancy purchased the water rights surrounding her Nevada land, she sold the ranch and began to spend her time in poetry, a pursuit that she had first began when she was seventeen. In her lifetime she has penned some seventy poems and has received many awards. Nevada honored her for having ridden 100,000 miles on horseback and for being the first resident of the state inducted into the Cowgirl Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas. She received the "Gail Gardner Award" for outstanding work in the genre of cowboy poetry.<ref name=gawatkins/> This honor is named for Gail I. Gardner (1892-1988), an Arizona cowboy who was later the postmaster of Prescott, Arizona.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cowboypoetry.com/gardner.htm|title=Featured at the Bar D Ranch: Gail Gardner|publisher=cowboypoetry.com|accessdate=January 30, 2014}}</ref>