FORT WORTH. The Red Steagall Cowboy Gathering opens Friday in the Fort Worth Stockyards with three days of ranch rodeo, chuck wagon cooking, cowboy poetry and Western swing, and this year marks 35 years of the event, according to North Texas radio station 95.9 The Ranch’s preview. The gathering’s schedule page lists events Oct. 23 to 25, with ticketed shows at Cowtown Coliseum and the RFD-TV Studios and chuck wagon camps that visitors can walk through near Exchange Avenue and the Livestock Exchange lawn.
The gathering began in 1991, when a group of cowboys met at Cowtown Coliseum, according to its history page. It was first produced by the Texas A&M Extension service and has been managed since 2022 by Marked For Greatness Properties. Steagall, named the official cowboy poet of Texas in 1991 according to the gathering’s music and poetry page, is still on the bill. He plays with the Boys in the Bunkhouse at 4 p.m. Saturday and is a featured guest at Saturday night’s Western swing dance.
Red Steagall Cowboy Gathering schedule by day
Never Late News sorted the gathering’s detailed schedule, which is labeled tentative and carries a Sept. 3 date in its file name, into the events that need a ticket and the ones that do not list one. Rodeo tickets are sold through AXS for Cowtown Coliseum, and the box office number on the schedule page is (817) 625-1025.
| Day and time | Event | Where | Ticket |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fri., noon | Chuck wagons arrive in camp | Exchange Avenue | None listed |
| Fri., 2:30 p.m. | Cowboy poetry | RFD-TV Studios | Required |
| Fri., 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. | Cowboy music: Jean Prescott, Dan Roberts, Andy Hedges and others | RFD-TV Studios | Required |
| Fri., 7:30 p.m. | Ranch rodeo | Cowtown Coliseum | Required |
| Sat., 8 a.m. | Youth fiddle contest | RFD-TV Studios | None listed |
| Sat., 11 a.m. and 5:15 p.m. | Cowboy music sets | RFD-TV Studios | Required |
| Sat., 1:15 p.m. | Cowboy poetry, invited and featured poets | RFD-TV Studios | Required |
| Sat., 1:30 p.m. | Ranch rodeo matinee | Cowtown Coliseum | Required |
| Sat., 4 p.m. | Red Steagall and the Boys in the Bunkhouse | RFD-TV Studios | Required |
| Sat., 7:30 p.m. | Ranch rodeo finals | Cowtown Coliseum | Required |
| Sat., 9:30 p.m. to midnight | Western swing festival with Jake Hooker and the Outsiders, Red Steagall and Jason Roberts | Cowtown Coliseum | Required |
| Sun., 10 a.m. | Cowboy church and singing | RFD-TV Studios | None listed |
| Sun., 10 a.m. | Youth chuck wagon cook-off | Livestock Exchange lawn | None listed |
| Sun., 1:30 p.m. | Chuck wagon awards | Livestock Exchange lawn | None listed |
The schedule page bundles the Saturday finals and the swing dance into one rodeo package and also sells a swing-only ticket. The gathering’s youth events page gives 10 a.m. for the fiddle contest, so families should check the time before heading out Saturday.
What a ranch rodeo looks like
Unlike a standard rodeo, where cowboys compete individually, a ranch rodeo is a team contest built on real ranch chores, the gathering’s rodeo page explains. Teams from working outfits compete in six events: team sorting, maverick branding, saddle bronc, team doctoring, stray gathering and wild cow milking. In team sorting, five cowboys get two minutes to cut four cattle from a herd in numerical order. In wild cow milking, a team ropes and holds a cow while one cowboy milks it into a bottle and runs it to a judge, who needs to see at least a drop.
The chuck wagon cook-off runs on 1880 rules. Wagons carry only the supplies and ingredients common in that era, and teams are judged on meat, beans, bread and dessert plus their camp, with $4,500 in prize money, according to the chuck wagon page. The wagons cook for the judges only and are not allowed to feed the public, but visitors are encouraged to walk the camp and talk with the cooks.
Never Late News pulled recent champions from the gathering’s own results pages.
| Year | Ranch rodeo overall champion | Chuck wagon overall champion |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | K.W. Cattle Company | Robertson Wagon |
| 2024 | K.W. Cattle Company | Homer Robertson |
| 2023 | E.C. Cattle Company | Cripple Creek Chuck Wagon |
| 2022 | E.C. Cattle Company | Goode Ranch Chuck Wagon |
Why it happens at Cowtown Coliseum
The building is part of the story. Cowtown Coliseum was finished in 1908 and calls itself the home of the world’s first indoor rodeo in 1918, according to the venue’s history page, which also says the first rodeo broadcast on live radio aired from there on WBAP in 1932. The gathering’s Western swing page says the dance is in the coliseum for 2026, immediately after the rodeo finals.
The National Weather Service forecast for the Stockyards, issued Thursday, calls for a mostly sunny Friday with a high near 85, a high near 84 on Saturday and a Saturday night low around 62. It is a different kind of Fort Worth night out than Brooks & Dunn at Dickies Arena or John Mulaney at Will Rogers earlier this month, and much of the daytime action is outdoors in the chuck wagon camps.
How Never Late News reported this
Sources were the Red Steagall Cowboy Gathering’s schedule and tickets page, its tentative detailed schedule (file dated Sept. 3), and its history, ranch rodeo, chuck wagon, Western swing, music and poetry, and youth events pages; 95.9 The Ranch’s Oct. 9 preview; the AXS ticket listing for Cowtown Coliseum; Cowtown Coliseum’s venue history page; and the National Weather Service forecast issued Oct. 22. Information gain for this piece is a Never Late News day-by-day planner that separates ticketed events from those with no ticket listed, and an NLN table of four years of ranch rodeo and chuck wagon champions compiled from the gathering’s results. No interviews were conducted.