Round-Up’s here, rockin’ and rollin’

Rodeo’s rough.
The cowboys know it. The cowgirls know it. The horses and bulls know it, too.
For Don Gay, that’s not a drawback. It’s part of the draw.
“It’s the man-versus-beast synopsis,” according to Gay, an eight-time PRCA World Champion bull rider and one of the sport’s most familiar figures. “You can watch rodeo video if you want, but it’s the cowboy matching his skills against the skills of these rodeo animal athletes, whether they’re bovine or horses.”
Enjoy the online clips, Gay says, but show up for the real thing at the Gladewater Round-Up Rodeo Arena. The fun got started Tuesday with Slack 2026, and the action continues nightly through Saturday. Learn more at GladewaterRodeo.com
“There’s nothing like being in person where you might get a little dirt kicked up into your lap, even up in the middle of the grandstands.”
This week marks the 89th year for the Gladewater Round-Up, a stout stretch of tradition and hard work with everything that makes rodeo exciting – the color, the pageantry, the legacy.
“What I like best about it, this is the 89th year that volunteers in the town of Gladewater have put up a good amount of money for cowboys that are trying to make a living,” Gay said. “It’s a lot of work to put on a rodeo. It takes a whole village and a whole town to stay behind it and make it work.”
He’s been on the road a lot in recent weeks, between events and camps, with Gladewater’s Round-up on the horizon after a final stint at a riding school.
“I spent two days with them, got them on the right track,” Gay said, “hopefully some prospective bull riders.”
Everybody has to start somewhere.
For the professionals headed into Gladewater, it’s work, competition and livelihood.
“This is how they make a living,” Gay said. “This is not just a weekend thing,” but one stop of a long circuit. Round-Up arrives as some contestants are preparing for the ‘summer run,’ a string of rodeos every day of the week across the United States and Canada. “This is really a worldwide sport, a worldwide competition. You can be anywhere.”
Gladewater gets the full slate of top talent between Extreme Bulls on Wednesday night and three nights of competition following.
Ladies breakaway roping has drawn almost 80 entries for the three days of rodeo, Gay noted, a sign of the strength of one of the sport’s ever-popular events.
While much of rodeo is the violence of man versus beast, “Some of it is just absolutely picturesque, like watching the women make a flawless barrel racing run, 40 miles an hour, making hairpin turns. It’s even way better than a car race.”
And, rough though rodeo may be, it takes care of its own. Keep the hooves hearty and hale.
“Without the animals, we’re nothing,” Gay said. “The livestock, they’re pretty rough, too, but they get handled with TLC.”
It takes a special breed, and they merit dedicate care.
“Every horse will buck a little bit. To carry a cowboy, to give him an opportunity to show his skills, that takes a special animal,” Gay said. “We take special care and special pride in the livestock that comes from Raptor G.
“There’s a lot that goes into it. Some of the livestock that will be in competition here has breeding and lineage back to the 1940s.”
Same for Gladewater’s Round-up. Competition, breeding, lineage – going all the way back 89 years.
“It’s a lot of fun.”