The Fort Worth Stockyards Championship Rodeo is mourning the loss of one of its performers.
Bailey Gasch, 21, died Aug. 30, six days after she was admitted to Fort Worth's John Peter Smith Hospital following a fall from a horse.
Gasch was training in Palo Pinto County, south of Mineral Wells, on Aug. 24 when she sustained a serious head injury.
"Everybody loved her. She was a great girl, and she's going to be missed by everybody," said Dee Dee Barker Wix, director of operations for the rodeo.
Gasch was an equine sciences student at Tarleton State University in Stephenville. She grew up in Paris and leaves behind her parents and several siblings.
Gasch started working as the rodeo's flag girl over the summer. She is one of several women who serve as the main flag bearer during the rodeo, a job that is by no means easy.
"You have to be a real athlete to do it," Wix said. "The flags are real heavy. They're really tall. Flag poles are heavy, and you have to keep it straight up and down; can't let it fall back at all."
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Gasch stood out doing the job, which led the rodeo to announce Gasch's death and to offer condolences to her family on Wednesday.
“Our Thoughts and Prayers go out to the family of our Flag Girl, Bailey Gasch. Died 8/30/13 in a horse accident. RIP”
"She was experienced at doing what she did, and you could tell by the way she rode her horse and carried the flag," Wix said. "She did an excellent job for us every time."
Born in Dallas, Gasch was a senior at Tarleton State University, where she majored in animal production with an emphasis in equine science, according to her obituary in The Empire Tribune.
Funeral services will be held on Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Cooper High School Gymnasium in Cooper.
