How did I get HERE? : Let's all go to the STOCKSHOW! post II

Denver has this National Western Stockshow - it is a HUGE event. It's held at the Denver Colleseum and all the surrounding buildings... it's really cool. I've been going since college. When Furry Husband and I met, he'd never been. I took him on a date, and showed him what the stockshow was all about. We've gone every year since.

The only experience I have really with any sort of stock really was for extra credit in a nutrition class when I was in college. I showed a dairy heifer at a smaller stockshow. Heifers are cows that haven't had any calves yet. I had to bathe, brush, clip her and teach her to lead around with a halter. All I know is that cows don't necessarily WANT to go with you and when I was giving my heifer a bath she about kicked my head in.

There are cattle shows, yak shows, draft horse performances - if you've never seen a team of draft horses all decked out with their fancy harnesses and hitches, you are missing out! They are impressive. There are amazing horse Grand Prix jumping classes with a $40K jackpot to win, rodeos, horse and dog pulls where they hitch dogs or horses up to a sled loaded with sandbags, they keep adding more weight til only one winning team of dogs or horses can pull it.

There is bull riding and there are stock dog trials - herding dogs have to run either sheep or cows through a series of activities, like thru a gate, into a pen, loaded into a trailer. You can see western horse reining and cattle cutting competitions, steer roping, wool shows, fiddle contests, mules, donkeys, ducks, geese, llamas, alpacas, pigs and chickens and goats etc.

And there are vendors - millions of vendors selling everything from ranch equipment and squeeze chutes to ceramic curling irons and cook ware. People come from everywhere to show their animals, talk deals, trade, buy, sell and catch up with each other. Anything you can imagine about farm animals probably happens at the stock show... (oh, get your mind outta the gutter!)

Furry Husband and I both took the day off from work and headed down to Denver for the Stockshow. It's way less crowded during the week than on the weekends.

We didn't buy tickets for any particular event. We walked around and watched. We each had our annual corn dog and some kettle corn.

A big ol' pile o' turkey legs just seemed funny to me for some reason...?

Some sheep are bald... some are not....

And here is the reason why! Sheep shearing demonstrations!

Now wouldn't you like to have your very own Boer buck necklace? How about a pig or beef steer? They are all 100% sterling silver and would go nicely with your Wranglers....

This was a horse halter class...the darker horse with four white feet and the guy in the blue shirt with the black hat? He won the class...

This lady is showing her Boer goat... I've never seen them clipped this way. Sorta looks poodle like. The picture doesn't show the lady's hair very well... Furry Husband wanted me to be sure to get the hair.