Horse Judging at NWSS 2024

It was that time of year again--the 4-H Western Roundup that is held annually every January right before the National Western Stock Show opens.  I was once again asked to come up and tabulate the national 4-H Horse Judging Contest.

A friend who is still actively involved with coaching kids called me the day before I was heading up to Denver and asked if I wanted to go to the horse bowl contest.  Why not?  So I headed out the door at 6:30 a.m. to pick up Jackie and head north to Denver.

This year the contests were held in Colorado State University's newest campus--The CSU Spur.  It's an educational campus that focuses on education surrounding food, water, and health.  I was truly impressed by the facilities.

We watched several rounds of horse bowl and when they broke for lunch we made our way over to the Denver Stockyard Saloon.  Of course we had to stop for a selfie in front of the saloon entrance.

Later that day we attended the coach's meeting for the horse judging contest.  As the tabulator I always go the coach's meeting in case any 4-Her's have added or dropped or if I misspelled any of their names on the team rosters.  Above is one of my former team members, Tiffany, who has become the most involved 4-H volunteer I know.  This year she volunteered to be the horse judging contest superintendent.  

Afterwards I was invited to go to dinner with the Horse Classic staff which includes the 4-H extension staff, superintendents and officials for all the horse competitions at Roundup.  We went to Texas de Brazil which is an all you can eat Brazilian steakhouse.  We started with a fabulous salad bar and then...

...they start bringing out spit after spit of every kinds of meat you can imagine.  Steak done 10 different ways, chicken, pork ribs, sausage, lamb shank, lamb chops, etc.  They give you a coaster that you turn over to red when you want they to stop offering meat to you.  Mine got turned over very quickly.  It was all delicious, but wow...I can't eat all that meat.  I definitely didn't get "my money's worth" and I'm not sure I'd go back again because it was just so over the top and expensive too.

We got up early the next morning and made our way over to the Denver Coliseum where the actual contest was held.  We were fortunate because a winter storm was supposed to roll in, but it stayed south of Denver which was great news.  People who volunteer to bring horses don't like to trailer them on ice and snow packed roads.

Jonathan, Jillian's former coach, had to sit across the arena from the competitors this year and couldn't be the slightest bit involved in the contest because he had a team there representing Colorado.  I used the zoom on my new iPhone to see if I could capture him.  It's grainy, but I can still see he was wearing his lucky orange shirt that he's been wearing on contest day for at least the last 20 years.

The horses in the contest were very high quality.  I especially enjoyed the reining horses although as tabulator I don't really get to watch much of the contest.  Reining was the first class.

Stock Show added this nice little counter in the VIP area of the arena sometime last year so for the first time ever I got to set up my computer and printer and have space to sort the placing cards.  Usually I have about an 18" space in the corner so a lot of stuff was setup on the floor.

The judging part of the contest was finished by about 12:30 so it was time to pack up and head over to the CSU Spur where the 4-Hers would give their oral reasons to justify their placings.  It was a long afternoon that didn't end until 7:00 or so.  For some reason I didn't get a photo of the very nice tabulation room they set up for me.  Quite a nice change from tabulating on the concourse of the Event Center last year.  Quiet is always good when you're working with scores and a national contest is on the line.  Fortunately CSU paid for a second night in the hotel for me so I didn't have to drive home in the dark.

The awards breakfast was the next day, but I was on the road long before it even started.  If you're wondering who won--it was the Colorado team and they won by 61 points which is huge.

Will I be back next year?  I told them I saw retirement in my future, but we'll see if anyone else steps up to the role.