Saturday, January 15, 2022

The National Western Stock Show - Part II





As I mentioned in yesterday's blog post, I went to the National Western Stock Show this past Thursday afternoon to take some photographs, and my sister Susan came along, too, to see what it was like. She has never attended this event before, despite living in Colorado for almost 40 years, and really enjoyed it, especially the petting zoo. I took the photograph on the left of her interacting with one of the horses down in the horse barn, on the lower level of the Expo Hall.





Susan did mention that she thought the cows were pretty boring, but I myself  disagree. Down in the cattle barn, everyone seems to be continuously vacuuming their steers. I hope they don't have to do that back at the ranch - they would need an awfully long extension cord, if so. I was especially fascinated to see how they take the cattle into the showers and scrub them down, as seen in the photograph on the right. And is that a blue cow that guy on the right is scrubbing? Must be some sort of new breed.





And as in past years, the Cowboy Bar is back, located right in the middle of the cattle barn. It is a pretty busy place during the evenings, but since we were at the show in the afternoon, it was not crowded at all when I took the photograph on the left. What I want to know is why Coors is the beer of choice for cowboys? Is it because it is brewed in Golden, "Where the West Lives?" That's as good an explanation as any.





As we were leaving the stock show grounds, I wondered once again why there are horses out in front of the place, one of whom can be seen in the photograph on the right, and separated from the rest of the herd back in the horse barn. Are these work horses, kept separate from the horses participating in the various official shows? In any case, that horse in the photo was happy to have it's portrait taken, and seemed to enjoy being outside in the fresh air, as opposed to the "official" horses, stuck inside a building in small stalls. Sometimes it is better not be a star.

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