The 120th annual National Western Stock Show began this past Saturday here in Denver and will continue through Sunday, January 25th. It is described as part-rodeo, part-livestock show, and part-fair, and is a real big deal, drawing thousands of visitors. The best part of the show by far is seeing all the livestock. A number of years ago I attended one of the rodeos at this event and stuck it out until the bitter end, but would never willingly do so again. As Ed, my friend and former boss at the University of Denver Bookstore once said about rodeos, "once is interesting, twice is a mistake." However, the year before last, my sister Susan insisted on attending a rodeo, too, no doubt influenced by reading all those Joe Pickett novels by Wyoming author C.J. Box, who is a rodeo enthusiast. She managed to stay for 15 minutes before insisting we leave and head over to see the livestock. In any case, Susan and I, along with our friends Mark and "the other Susan" from our building's 10th floor, decided to attend the stock show this past Tuesday, which was a free day and my favorite price point, as regular blog readers know. We started out at the Junior Barn in the basement of the Hall of Education Building, where I took the photograph on the left. And yes, virtually all the goats down there were wearing masks. Are they Covid masks, or simply masks to keep those goats from biting stock show visitors? I have no idea.
I took the photograph on the right of Izzy the steer at the brand-new Sue Anschutz-Rodgers Livestock Center. In previous years, almost all the animals were housed in the basement of the Hall of Education Building, right next to the Junior Barn, while the petting farm was on the 3rd floor of the same building. Which was very handy if looking at the livestock was the main reason you were there. Now, you have to walk to the other side of the grounds to see the cattle, and there is even a new building to house the horses. Which makes it a bit of a challenge to see all the animals you want if you have a limited amount of time. I think they call that progress.
The positive part of moving most of the animals to different buildings is that the petting farm was moved to the basement and doubled in size from its previous location on the third floor. Each year I would attempt to take photographs in that limited space, but there were always so many kids, animals, parents, pooper scooper-uppers and staff in that small area that it was always a challenge. This year there was actually a lot of space to move around, and I was able to converse with the various animals and get them to pose, such as the sheep in the photograph on the left. Of course, it is not hard to get those animals to pose for you because they all think you have food for them, which is sold in front of the entrance to the compound. Granted, I never have any food for them, but they don't realize this until after I take the photo. Sorry about that, guys, but didn't the photos turn out well?
I took the photo on the right of that sheep in the petting farm, too. And from the expression on its face, I suspect it must have a really dry sense of humor. Not everyone doing people watching is actually a person, after all. I think this guy is perfectly okay getting petted - and more importantly, fed - by thousands of kids for a 16-day period and having all kinds of different people admire you. Beats sitting in some cold damn barn 24/7 in the middle of winter doing nothing but watching Animal Planet on the cable channel, right? All in all, a very fun day at the National Western Stock Show. I am even considering going again and paying actual money to get in. And so you know it must be worth going to.
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