Viola Thomas was born in 1939 in Alberta, Canada. She grew up in Millarville, near Calgary, on her parents' ranch. Her father was a farrier and staff sergeant with Lord Strathcona's Horse Regiment. By the time she was four years old, Thomas was riding horses and from age ten was competing with male riders on the class B race circuit. As a teenager, she competed in trail rides as well as steer decorating, an event which requires the rider to dismount and adorn a steer horn with a ribbon.
