Don King Days Rodeo

The Big Horn Equestrian Center sits on the outskirts of Sheridan at the foot of the Bighorn Mountain range — an open-air polo and equestrian facility whose grass fields and mountain backdrop give it the physical character that the Don King Days Rodeo and polo tournament require. Don King, the namesake for this annual event, was not the boxing promoter but a legendary Wyoming horseman — a rancher and polo figure whose contribution to the Big Horn Polo Club’s development and to the equestrian culture of the Sheridan corridor is honored annually on Labor Day weekend. The 2026 event runs September 5 with gates opening at 9:00 a.m. and events beginning at 11:00 a.m.

The Day’s Program

The Don King Days Cup polo tournament constitutes the largest competitive polo event of the Big Horn Polo Club’s season, bringing together the teams and players that the Sheridan area’s unexpectedly deep equestrian tradition produces — Sheridan has maintained a serious polo culture since the early 20th century when wealthy eastern ranchers introduced the sport to their Wyoming properties, and the Big Horn area’s combination of high-altitude terrain and horse culture has sustained it. Steer roping follows the polo action — a traditional Western competition whose technical demands on both horse and rider give it a compelling physical specificity that more general rodeo formats lose in the variety of their event mix. Invitational bronc riding rounds out the field competition before the Club House hosts live country music and the social conclusion to a day that started with polo and closed with dancing. Food vendors operate through the day’s full schedule.

Sheridan and the Big Horn Country

Sheridan, Wyoming, population roughly 18,000, sits at the foot of the Bighorn Mountains in Johnson County — a community whose Main Street commercial district and Victorian downtown give it a historic character unusual for its size, and whose proximity to the Bighorn National Forest, the Tongue River, and the Cloud Peak Wilderness provides an outdoor recreation infrastructure proportionately larger than the town’s population would suggest. The Bighorn Scenic Byway (US-14 west of Sheridan) climbs into the mountains through 9,000-foot passes with elk, deer, and bighorn sheep viewable from the road in the September period that the Don King Days event occupies.

Where to Eat in Sheridan

Wyoming’s Rib and Chop House (203 N. Main St., Sheridan, open since 2002) is the most consistent full-service steakhouse in downtown Sheridan, with a menu running aged prime beef, hand-cut Wyoming lamb chops, and the house buffalo sirloin with green peppercorn sauce that most first-time Wyoming visitors find in the kitchen’s range of regional preparations. The house porterhouse with herb butter and the Wyoming lamb rack with rosemary reduction are the kitchen’s most specifically Western preparations. The Sheridan Genuine Ice Cream Company (6 N. Main St., open since 2019) fills the post-rodeo dessert category with a house-made small-batch ice cream program covering seasonal Wyoming-sourced flavors — the house huckleberry custard and the honey and sage ice cream made with local Bighorn Basin honey are the preparations that most visitors single out as the most place-specific food experience available in downtown Sheridan.

Points of Interest for Families

The King’s Saddlery and Museum (184 N. Main St., Sheridan, open since the 1940s as a working saddlery) is among the American West’s most unusual family destinations — a functioning saddle and western gear manufacturing operation that also houses one of the largest collections of historic saddles, ropes, and western equipment in the country within the same building where craftsmen are still hand-building saddles using traditional techniques. The museum portion covers the working history of the western cattle industry through equipment, photographs, and the specific material culture that the Sheridan area’s ranching heritage produced over more than a century. The Don King who founded the saddlery bears the same name as the event’s honoree — a coincidence of Sheridan’s specific equestrian legacy. The National Museum of Wildlife Art (2820 Rungius Rd., Jackson Hole, 3 hours south) provides the regional museum destination for families with older children interested in the intersection of Western landscape and fine art representation.

Book Your Stay on the Water

Sheridan County’s Tongue River Reservoir, 35 miles east of town in the Montana border country, provides the nearest significant water recreation for event visitors. Search Lake.com for properties in the Sheridan and northern Wyoming corridor to find vacation rental options suited for a Labor Day weekend that combines the Don King Days Rodeo with the surrounding Bighorn Mountain and high-plains landscape.