A day at the National Western

I'm always at the National Western Stock Show the day before it actually opens.  That's when the horse judging contest takes place for the 4-H National Western Roundup.  They always give me a Stock Show pass as part of my compensation and I always try to come back to take advantage of it.

The draft horse and mule show was yesterday.  I always love the cart classes.  My favorite cart classes are at Arabian Nationals in Tulsa every October.  I need to get back there this year.

I told Irv that maybe it was time for me to get my own hitch and cart (and draft horse).  These gentle giants are beautiful.

There was a mama pig with a bunch of piglets.  No wonder she's so tired.

There was a mule costume class.  These guy was pretty darn cute as a zebra.

Walking through the barn we encountered this guy.  He was huge and very well behaved.  I think this is the guy that they put kids on and take their pictures.

There was a heifer show going on so all the girls were getting beautified.

They are so darn cute when they're all fuzzy like this.

The highlanders are especially cute.

We watched a few classes in the arena.  The judges place the class and give their reasons while they're still in the ring.  I think horse shows need to start that practice.  I listened to a couple sets of the judge's reasons to find out what they're looking for in a heifer.  It's quite similar to horse judging.

We meandered through the trade show and then went upstairs to the Western art exhibit.  I love this bison.

Then it was pro rodeo time.

We had fantastic seats down by the bucking chutes.

There was some mutton busting.  Those kids did an amazing job of hanging on.  There was some controversy about the mutton busting this year.  A group tried to eliminate it from the rodeo because it scares the sheep.  Oh well, sooner or later we're going to eat those sheep and I'm sure they're treated great while they're at the rodeo.

The big rigs came in and did a few rounds.  I don't know what has happened to the Wells Fargo stagecoach.  It used to be at all the rodeos, but at the NFR and now the Stock Show the stagecoach was from a different sponsor.  It was Wyoming day and the governor of Wyoming was on top of the coach.  I wanted to go find him to ask him to reconsider making Yellowstone seasonal employees register their vehicles in Wyoming during the summer.  

There was a bull fighting competition.  They have to fight the bull for 40-70 seconds which is a really long time when you have an angry bull trying to kill you.  Don't these guys have anything else to do for fun?

Of course bull riding is the last event. 

The bulls were the winners for the day.

It was a fun day.  The National Western has been around for over 100 years.  I love that this Western tradition continues for new generations.

Have you been to a Stock Show lately?