FORT WORTH, Texas — The 2021 Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo (FWSSR) is canceled as a precautionary measure due to COVID-19. 

The decision has been especially hard for high school seniors who say this was their last chance to show and win big at the annual event.

“When it got canceled I was very disappointed and upset because it is my senior year,” says Brayden Deborde, a high school senior from Ennis, Texas.

Deborde says preparing animals to show at the FWSSR takes many months of early mornings, discipline, and hard work. 

"Very early in the morning before school go gather all the calves put them in the barn and feed them and once I come home from school, I’ll come a little early I’ll come home wash them blow dry them,” he said.

Seniors like Deborde are awarded monetary prices and scholarships that they rely on to help with the costs of their college expenses.

“Some people can say there’s always next year but for us seniors, there’s not gonna be a next year,” says Kylie Wimbish, a high school senior from Midlothian who was planning on exhibiting her goats at FWSSR 2021.

Despite the decision made in early October, high school seniors and other students across Texas are hopeful that the FWSSR organizers will find a way to let them show their animals in a safe way during this pandemic.

"Let us prove that we can follow the rules and socially distance or whaterver we would have to do. We’re willing to do it,” she says.

In the meantime, they will keep grooming, feeding and getting their goats, steer and other farm animals show ready. 

The Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo usually takes place every in January. Event officials have not changed their decision about the cancellation as of now.