Kicking Off (pun!) Winter in Denver

When I first moved to Denver (in my old career) one of the guys I worked with told me that the way to kick off the winter season is to go to the National Western Stock Show. I was like, it's not, you know, skiing? No, it's not.

The Stock Show is an enormous event, lasting about 16 days and bringing thousands of people to Denver for expos, farming business, rodeos, and networking. We go for the animals, the people-watching (hey! People are watching us, too! It works both ways.), and the rodeo.

Why, yes. I come for the people watching.

One of our favorite booths to visit is the bird rescue one. They tell you all about their birds and let you look at them for as long as you want. (<-- it occurs to me that that sounds creepy. We're not bird stalking or anything. They're just really pretty and kind of hypnotizing.)

Yesterday we learned why our national emblem is called the "bald" eagle. The early American (English) word for someone with white hair was bald. So, it's not that they didn't think the eagle had any feathers on its head, it's that they were totally white. It was completely white-headed, so it was called "bald."

We roamed around and looked at all kinds of farming equipment, animals, educational booths, expo booths, furniture, food (!), jewelry, art work, etc.

Look at the snow tracks. This thing was listed for almost $24,000.

 

Then we went to the rodeo!

It occurs to me that, to someone who is unfamiliar with farming or with rodeo culture in general (is that a thing? Rodeo culture?), it can look like a bunch of people who are exploiting animals (at best) and treating them unethically and cruelly (at worst). In my experience, that is not the case at all. My papa had a farm and rode horses and trained (broke) wild horses as a side business and hobby. Because of that, I grew up quite literally under foot and got very used to these big animals and their personalities. We use the term "work horse" for a reason; historically, people and horses have worked really well together not only to accomplish tasks but to form important bonds and survive together.

To see cowboys riding a bucking bronco or bull can be quite a shock but the animal is just fine. Perhaps mildly annoyed. But they have all the power and leverage, and they know it.

Look closely at the picture below. See the guy flying through the air? Yeah, didn't even make it out of the gate. The bull just looked around like, are we done here?

Until next year!