Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo, 2010.


I did not grow up in Fort Worth, but of my friends that did, most of them have a favorite Fort Worth Stock Show story. I like to hear them, if you have one.

This is my third post in three years on the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo, one of Fort Worth's premier events, if not the premier event. When I moved to Fort Worth in 1982, it was called the Fat Stock Show. Now, it's just the Stock Show and there have been over 100 of them. The Stock Show has all the amenities of a county fair and a serious competitive element of show animals and live-stock selling. And, of course, the highly rated rodeo.

One year my wife and I we were exploring different parts of the Show and stumbled across the sheep dog trials. She is from the part of England where sheep dog competitions were an annual event and taken very seriously. Needless to say, we stayed for the whole competition. To me, that is half the fun of the Show, finding things you didn't necessarily expect to see, or haven't seen before.

Children love the small animals, rabbits, chickens, and you name it, it's judged; older folks like the dog shows and horse shows, and everybody loves the rodeo.

It's all worth the inexpensive admission. Once you have paid the small admission fee there are dozens of free events including music, animal shows, milking parlors, etc.

January 15 - February 7, 2010

Look for the calendar of events on their website:
http://www.fwssr.com/

3 comments:

j said...

One of my favorites was the first time I took my daughter who was 2yrs old at the time. We were walking in the horse barn when we heard a loud clattering/thundering sound. Then, right before us and at a cross 'road' in the barn, the Budweister Clydesdales came marching past us about 2 feet away. She was somewhere between mesmerized and terrified at the same time. It was all she could talk about for weeks.

Ms Lee P said...

Awwww, I loved your article. I haven't been to the stock show since my boys were in high school and they are in their 40's now. My memories of attending this show is all about freezing my feet off trying to walk around and see all the animals and walk the fair grounds with my kids. Brrrrr, always cold at this time.

Francis Shivone said...

JDW -- thanks for the comment and i think terrified is the right word, as big as those guys are.

Mrs. LeeP -- after two weeks from posting comments are put on hold for review. I get a lot of bad junk posts otherwise. But thanks for the comment -- I think this year may be another one of those cold ones.