National Western Stock Show

The National Western Stock Show will be starting at the end of this week in Denver, CO., going for two weeks. Boy does that bring back memories ...


The Horse Science program I was in was a 2-year deal. Each student got the opportunity to show a horse at the National Western either their first year or their second. I got to show my first year there.





This involved working with the horse at halter, grooming, and other things necessary to prepare to show in a class. Here's a picture (from my college yearbook) of the horse I showed, "A Lit A Bit O' Sue," also known as "Munchkin" or "Munchie." Those are two of my classmates in the photo. (You can see I had a lot of fun writing captions and stuff - the whole yearbook is full of 'em!)





So ... time came to pack up and leave for the show. There was all of us students, our instructor, a big pickup and trailer, horses, probably other vehicles, all headed west. (Later on, my band instructor at this college said we passed him on the highway "like a bat out of ..." (uh .. you-know-where!).


We arrived and got the horses set up at the show grounds. We got ourselves settled where we were staying. I remember it was quite an experience - actually, just being in Denver itself was quite an experience! While there, I even got to call my great-aunt who lived there and had a great conversation with her.


When it came time to show in our halter class, I was so glad that Munchkin did well. That is, she stood, she behaved, and even though we didn't place, I consider those qualities a success. So we got along fine, and it was a good experience.


One thing we did while there was to visit the college at Ft. Collins, observing their stallion facility. Um ... I got an education there. Even though we had a stud at the barn, I hadn't ... um ... observed horses "doing that" yet. Well, they collected a stallion while we were visiting this facility, and let me say, I ... learned a lot. (Eventually, we were more involved in the breeding at the barn, and I learned even more about the ... natural way.) *blush*


Another thing that happened on this "National Western" trip was a day off to go snow skiing somewhere in the mountains nearby. The first year, I went skiing. It was the first, last and ONLY time I was or ever will be on snow skis!!! Let's just say that me and slick snow and boards on my feet don't get along! The second year, I just stayed at the show with the instructor when the others went skiing, and got to go with him to deliver our champion yearling filly to her new home. THAT was worthwhile!


The second year in the program, I was an "alternate" for a girl, in case she couldn't show for some reason. This was the girl that had problems giving a horse a shot. (See the post about "should've been a vet.") Anyway, we both worked with this horse - a young, spaz-o gray-dapple named "Skip" - that refused to learn anything. He was a nice enough horse personality-wise, but he was definitely not coming along very fast learning showing at halter. It was problematic.


To make a long story short, she did show Skip in the class, but I remember she had a lot of trouble controlling him, and he even reared some, which prompted me to think, "Man, I'm glad that's not ME out there!!!" But she got through the class, and that was that. Talk about a different experience from the first year!


So, the two trips to the National Western were both very interesting, fun, challenging, learning experiences. Oh yeah, I almost forgot ... that first year, we went out to eat one night at "Casa Bonita!" Talk about good Mexican food and a fun time! It wasn't ALL about showing horses, we had good outings together as well. :)