Every Sunday night on a 65-acre ranch outside Fayetteville, riders climb onto 1,500-pound bulls and try to hang on for eight seconds, chasing a rush that has cost some of them everything. But at Shady Acres Rodeo in Hope Mills, the arena has become something more than a place to compete — it is where a tight-knit community of young riders and veterans has been trying to hold each other together after losing five of their own to suicide since 2020.
The ranch sits about 75 miles from Raleigh and is run by Eddy Gushlaw, along with Sonya Gushlaw and Dorian Gushlaw, according to The News & Observer. Gushlaw, 55, has been at Shady Acres for nearly three decades and calls rodeo the only sport where competitors stand for the flag and kneel for the Lord, per the same account. The ranch offers practice rides and cash-payout jackpots, hosting public events every Sunday night, and riders pray together before the competitions begin.
Gushlaw and his wife are both veterans, and it was the death of a close veteran friend by suicide that pushed him to launch Rodeo 22, an awareness effort that uses the sport to build emotional support structures around young riders. The initiative takes its name from a 2012 Department of Veterans Affairs report estimating 22 veteran suicides a day, the outlet’s report notes, and its logos and stickers now appear throughout the property. Its motto, one life at a time, one rodeo at a time, reflects Gushlaw’s approach of staying reachable — he keeps his phone on 24 hours a day for young riders who need someone to call.
A Pattern That Cuts Close to Home
The federal statistic that inspired Rodeo 22 has since evolved. The VA’s most recent National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report found that veteran suicides averaged 17.5 per day in 2023, totaling 6,398 deaths nationwide, according to Disabled American Veterans. That same federal data showed 61% of veterans who died by suicide in 2023 had not received VA health care in their final year, underscoring why community-based outreach outside the formal medical system matters for reaching people who never show up in a clinic…