National Western Stock Show Visit

I left the house early this morning and took the Express bus into Denver, switched to the free Mall bus at Water Street, and then hopped on # 48 to be dropped off at the Coliseum. For the cost of $1.25, I was delivered to the front door of the Stock Show... and it was marvelous! I've just returned home and have only taken time to give the kits a shrimp and salmon treat and power up the computer. The general admission for the NWSS was $7.00 today; it was for two levels at the Coliseum, 4 levels in the center, and two levels in the Arena. Other than the fact that it was a school field trip day for 15 elementary schools, it was absolutely spectacular!

I got to see poultry and rabbits, cattle and horses, llamas and alpacas. The piggies come in Sunday night... I got to pet everything, and also ran into a horse and westerns-oriented old book shop. I have to admit I purchased three books. I also picked up all kinds of literature and brochures, a NWSS T-shirt, several free horse magazines, and I won a stuffed cow (maybe because I'm a stuffed cow?)... They had a timed contest where an English bridle and saddle were taken apart and the contestants had to put the equipment back together correctly and put it on a horse. I had an old buckskin gelding, who was the easiest guy I've ever bridled. Anyway, I had the fastest time out of 25 people, so I won a stuffed cow. I had my photo taken outside the stalls of an 8-horse hitch of Shires and with a 2-year-old Longhorn steer named Star Eclipse.

There were all sorts of booths with merchandise and arts and crafts, furniture, farm machinery, books, candies, popcorn, nuts, funnel cakes, food, even several of those "Infomercial" items with an announcer with a mike and a nice little seating area so you could be sold something... There was information available about all the different breeds of all the different critters that were in attendance. The hunter-jumper section of the horse show was scheduled for today, and I saw several amateur-owner hunter classes, as well as children's jumper classes. The jumper class had one spooky jump - a red brick jump with open arches in both the standards and under the top rail, and it was at the opposite end from the "in" gate - and a lot (about 75%) of the riders either had one refusal or were unseated during a refusal at that one fence. - More tomorrow!!