story by Lillian Landreth
“I just enjoy the process of getting better. I grew up working hard, so the hard work of rodeo is no different than every other day. To do something fun and that you’re passionate about makes it easy to keep coming back and improving yourself.”
Grey Gilbert, an 18-year-old senior from Buffalo, South Dakota, is the third generation of his family to rodeo in the state, and the second generation to compete in the SDHSRA. “My dad high school rodeoed and then steer wrestled professionally. He ended up 16th in the world a couple of times. And my sister Sawyer was a National champion in junior high and high school, and she won the breakaway NFR in 2021.” Grey has a number of rodeo accomplishments he worked hard for as well. These include qualifying for the NHSFR twice and finishing fourth in the nation in 2021 in steer wrestling, while in 2019 he was the reserve world champion tie-down roper and all-around cowboy at the NJHFR.
Grey names his parents, Lloyd and Patti Gilbert, as his biggest supporters. From Lloyd hazing for him in all his steer wrestling runs, to Patti running chutes and Sawyer helping with horses, the Gilberts keep family in rodeo. “So many people have helped me in the rodeo community, it’s hard to name them all,” says Grey, who also competes in tie-down roping and team roping. He especially likes steer wrestling and the tradition it’s become in his family.
The equine half of his team is made up of four horses. “My main calf horse is probably 13 and he’s called Big Enough. He’s big and quite the character. You can do anything you want to on him, but he’s by far my best calf horse.” Barney, Grey’s steer wrestling horse, started out as Sawyer’s goat tying horse in high school and college, but he acquired the job of steer wrestling when an injury took Sawyer out of goat tying in college. Grey heels off of Crown in the team roping, and his haze horse is Relay, a 14-year-old head horse they also use on the family ranch.
Grey is the sixth generation of his family to operate their ranch, which runs 1,200–1,400 head of commercial Black Angus cows. His grandparents, Ray and Linda Gilbert, operate part of it and take care of everything when the family is away for rodeos. “We have six people on the ranch when Sawyer is home from school, usually five, so I spend a lot of hours outside working. That’s what I plan to do once I’m done with college and rodeoing in the pros for a couple of years.” Grey also enjoys hunting, and does welding projects on the ranch or for his uncle’s construction company to earn money towards college.
During the winter, Grey usually takes a break from rodeo practice to let his horses rest and pursue football and wrestling. A senior at Hardy County High School, he finished his high school football career with all-state honors twice and set a new school record in 2022 for most career sacks with 30. Grey also wrestled for 6 years on the varsity squad at 220 pounds and qualified for state 5 of those years, finishing his career with 183 wins and 77 losses. He decided to pursue rodeo at the collegiate level, however, and will be attending Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne, Wyoming to study Ag. business. “That’s where my dad went to school, and they have a really good bulldogging program. I want to make the college finals all three years I go to college—I plan to get my degree in three—and my big goal is the make the NFR. And it’s everybody’s goal to win it.”
