Poco Mountain Girl

The National Western Stock Show is held in Denver each year.  Being true Coloradans, we pulled on our boots and headed down to mingle with the ranchers and cowboys.

They happen to be a sight different than the hippies up here in the mountains.  Instead of sipping kombucha tea and nibbling organic kale chips, they unashamedly guzzle PBR’s and chow down on “cowboy” burritos, giant sausages, and cotton candy.

They had an amazing children’s area upstairs.  Zia took a pony ride and spent a good long time feeding and brushing the animals at the petting farm.  She made a strand of yarn from raw sheep’s wool and  bought a tiny pewter flying horse at one of the shops.

I checked out some alpaca yarn, and David and Caleb looked at the cowboy guns and holsters. Cash was just happy they had a nice comfy nursing mother’s area.

We watched some cattle judging, where the cows always seemed to be a nickel short through the hindquarters, a nickel long through the neck, or just a nickel turned in (or out) at the hocks. Otherwise, they were usually “nice little heifers, with lots of potential.”

I’m glad they don’t judge their cowboys and cowgirls by the same standards.  They would need some hefty quarters, or maybe even silver dollars, to account for all those cowboy burritos.

I would probably end up being a nickel narrow through the hindquarters, short through the pastern, and long through the girth, but happily, my cowboy doesn’t seem to care about that.  He knows I have a lot of potential.

There was a farming section for the kids, where we got to see firsthand the results of pesticides and herbicides, along with photos of caged chickens and huge crops of GMO corn. (Another small difference between hippies and ranchers.  Monsanto is the best thing that ever happened to them.)

It was a hoof-stompin’ good time and I sure love my cowboy boots, but honestly, I’m glad to be back in hippieland.  I think I’ll go have a sip of kombucha tea right now.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 26th, 2013 at 11:50 am and is filed under Colorado, Culture and History, Lion Man, Little Redhead Girl. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.