When I moved to Fort Worth, it was called the Fat Stock Show. Now, it's just the Stock Show and there have been a few more than a hundred of them. If you want a good look and feel into Texas tradition and particularly Fort Worth tradition visit the Fort Worth Stock Show. The Stock Show has all the amenities of a county fair and a serious competitive element of showing animals and selling stock. Plus, you have the rodeo.
My wife is from England who grew up in farm country where sheep dog trials were the main event of the county fair. We saw one at the Stock show and it was very enjoyable.
Young 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 11 - February 3, 2008
Check out the calendar of events at their website: http://www.fwssr.com/default.asp
Have a favorite Stock Show event or story? Please let us know in the comments.
3 comments:
I've been going to the stock show (which I still prefer to call the fat stock show) for about 30 years. I have numerous memories but I'll cut it short with a couple.
Simplest first: when we were middle schoolers, there was a booth that would sell us knock-off chinese ninja throwing stars. I think the only damage they could do was to the drywall in my garage, but we ate it up.
Next: we were out there probably five years ago and we'd never seen the herding dog competition. We just wandered into the arena, saw sheep and dogs, and started to check it out. There was a beer stand next to us, so we had no reason to move. We must have watched those brilliant border collies for three hours completely transfixed. I'll be checking the stock show site next to see when the dog herding is up...
Love the ninja story.
By the way, my wife and I stumbled into the same show. She being from England and growing up with the sheepherder loved it too.
People don't believe me when I tell them how interesting it is. And guessing which the dogs were to come in first, second, third made it more interesting.
I've run into a great writer about dogs, Jon Katz. We heard him speak at Casa Manana earlier this year. This guy was a NYC writer and decided to chuck it all and move out into the country and raise goats. The best thing he ever did was get a border collie. He's a sometimes columnist at Slate and this is the best article to start you off. A must read for any pet lover:
http://www.slate.com/id/2146000/
His website can be found here:
http://bedlamfarm.com/
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