My first time on a mechanical bull
We had arrived in Dallas just in time to miss the annual Dallas Fair – supposedly (according to a guy at the hotel) the biggest fair in all of the USA. “Well, that sucks” we thought and asked the receptionist if there was anything else we could do in the area. She said that there was nothing worth seeing in Dallas, but if we wanted a cowboy experience we should visit Fort Worth (about an hour away). Off we went!
Everything happens for a reason right? Although we missed the Dallas Fair, we had arrived just in time for The Red Steagall Cowboy Gathering and Western Swing Festival!
The Red Steagall Cowboy Gathering
The Red Steagall Cowboy Gathering happens on a weekend once each year in Fort Worth, and events include a chuck wagon cooking competition, ranch rodeo, cattle drive, dancing, and live music performances.
Walking through Fort Worth during a cowboy gathering is like walking through an ad co-sponsored by Ed Hardy and Wrangler jeans! I was glad I was wearing jeans. But even so, we stood out like sore thumbs (Ang even more so because she was wearing yoga pants). You’d be hard pressed to find a place with more cowboy hats, jeans or rhinestones. I can understand the hats and denim, but rhinestones?? Where’d that come from? I’m curious to know whether people normally dress this way in Fort Worth or if it was just for the event.
There’s so much to tell you about that I figured it’d be best to section this post off into smaller more digestible chunks:
Chuck Wagon Cookoff
Making bean stew the traditional way
Where else could you find a chuck wagon cookoff? So cool! There were dozens of teams set up with their own chuck wagons (Where else could you find people who own working chuck wagons!?!) cooking meals which all included biscuits, meat, bean stew and peach cobbler. The rules are simple: make your meals the traditional way using a chuck wagon and fire pits, using the same ingredients as everyone else. I don’t think there was a rule about how you clean the pots afterwards, but I saw people cleaning them the old fashioned way (in tubs) too.
And the best part? Everyone gets to sample the food! Even though the food made Ang and me feel a little ill (I suspect the culprit was the gravy), it was well worth it. We tried samples from three different chuck wagons which included: beef, biscuits, mashed potatoes, gravy, bean stew (some were plain bean stews and others were bean and vegetable stews), and peach cobbler (some were more cobbler-like and others were more pie-like). It was traditional home-cooking and for the most part, it was good! I loved the peach cobbler we had at the last wagon. Yum yum yum.
There are so many cookoff participants that the competition is sectioned off into different parts of the day. So long as you’re in the area in the afternoon, you’ll come across a sampling.
Ranch Rodeo
The cowboys lined up at the start of the Ranch Rodeo
I was really hesitant about attending the rodeo because I used to associate “rodeo” with brutality, animal cruelty and other uncomfortable images. But hey, we were in Texas and it didn’t feel right not to go to a rodeo. Besides, you should try and embrace other cultures while travelling. Right?
We got tickets and I’m so glad we did. The rodeo was my favourite part of the day! They didn’t do any of that bull spearing or thrashing that you usually see on rodeo ads or videos on tv. The rodeo was a competition featuring real challenges cowboys face on the farms:
Team Sorting: Working as a team to single out and move calves from the herd one at a time and in order (the calves are numbered) from one end of the field to the other. Some of the teams were able to do it really quickly and were very impressive.
Bronc Riding: Riding an angry horse for a minimum of eight seconds. Ok, I don’t think the cowboys do this on a regular basis (it’s really bad on the back), but it was definitely entertaining! Nobody was hurt (animals included).
Calf Branding: Working as a team to rope a cow and brand it. I flinched and went wide-eyed when it was announced that the next competition would be calf branding. I don’t appreciate the idea of branding cows because I don’t think they appreciate it either. Most of the cows and horses at the rodeo were branded. 
Thankfully, the competition used fake branding irons and flour to mark the cows.
This was taken earlier in the day when they were having horse cutting competitions. Horse cutting is when you separate one calf from the herd.
Maverick Branding: A combination of calf branding and team sorting where you have to cut the calf from the herd before you brand it. I wasn’t as keen on the sports that involved lassoing the animals because it looked painful and some of the cows would ‘moo’ in distress. They all walked away without any limps or signs of abuse though.
Mutton Bustin’: This was the CUTEST part of the competition! Little kids between 5 and 7 years of age would take turns mounting sheep and ride them for as long as they could. Some of those sheep could run really fast and most kids would fall off less than two meters out of the gate. There was one little boy though that seemed to have no concept of fear and latched onto that sheep all the way to the end through the herd! The crowd went wild as the kid strutted his way back to the starting line to receive his ribbon.
Team Doctoring: This is the only time when I’m ok with lassoing and tying down a cow. For this event, the team must cut their assigned cow from the herd and tie her down on both ends. This is done on a farm to allow a doctor to safely take a look at a distressed cow.
Wild Cow Milking: It’s exactly how it sounds! LOL And no, cowboys don’t normally do this on a farm.
Cattle Drive and Music Performances
Twice a day, cowboys would march a herd of cattle down the street. It’s a short spectacle, but worth a look if you’re already there.
Throughout the day, there are live music performances on several stages throughout the stockyards. Some performances don’t require a ticket, and others (the better ones) like the Quebe Sisters are held on stage in Mule Alley (ticket required). Mule Alley is also where they have the Swing Festival (dance) at the end of the night to live country music.
Around Fort Worth
Cowboy Boots
It was recommended to us that if we wanted to shop for cowboy hats, boots or jeans, we should shop outside of the main stockyards area because it’s very touristy and the prices are higher. I agree that the main stockyards area is very touristy, but it’s hard to imagine the prices being any higher than those of the surrounding stores. Boots were being sold anywhere between $200 and $2,000 per pair. Yes, they’re handcrafted and detailed, but gee whiz $2,o00 is a lot to spend on one pair of shoes. In another store we went to, each shirt was priced over $150 – the cheapest thing I found was a really ugly blue shirt on the sale rack for $70.
Tips for Travellers to Fort Worth & The Red Steagall Cowboy Gathering
- Prices: To attend some of the events at The Red Steagall Cowboy Gathering, you must purchase a ticket (it cost $30 per person this year with an additional $10 to attend the rodeo). You only need one ticket for all the events (except the rodeo), and events that require the purchase of this ticket include: music performances, horsemanship clinics, daytime cowboy competitions (ex. horse cutting), and admission to the markets, Cowboy Hall of Fame, and small museums. You do not need a ticket to shop in the malls around Fort Worth or sample food at the Chuck Wagon Cookoff. Even if you don’t purchase a ticket for the daytime events, I would highly recommend going to the Ranch Rodeo ($10)!
- There are surprisingly few places to get quick eats at the main Fort Worth stockyards area. If you’re there for the Cowboy Gathering, stop by the chuck wagon cookoff areas in the afternoon for free samples. There are enough samples to keep you full throughout the day if you’re short on change.
- You can bring snacks and drinks into the rodeo (they’re very casual), but you can also purchase snacks there (hot dogs are $3.50 and they also have cotton candy, burgers etc). Do NOT purchase a chilli hot dog. It tastes as nasty as it looks, and it looks pretty darn nasty.
- Watch where you step because the cows and horses walk on the same roads as the people.
- This may be different next year, but when we entered the main area of Fort Worth Stockyards, there was a sign for $10 all day parking. We went a little further in and ended up finding parking for $5.
- I don’t think Fort Worth would’ve been as much fun if we hadn’t stumbled across the Cowboy Gathering. But, if you’re there for it, plan to spend an entire day there. Go early (before noon) for good parking. If not, a couple hours to circle the area will suffice.
It’s too bad 
). My bad. The last I remembered through our Best Job e-mail threads (everyone still keeps in touch), he was climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa and roaming the streets of Europe! I received a message from him when we first arrived in Amarillo, Texas asking where we were planning on going in Texas and if we would be passing his way. He invited us to his family’s annual Pumpkin Carving Party, and we happily accepted his invitation!
