Beth and I went to Stock show yesterday, Friday the 18th. We had a blast!!
We got there around 12:00pm and went straight to find some food. There were plenty of vendors to browse through and wish for fun stuff to take home. If you’re looking for a good deal at stock show though, don’t, while some of the booths do have “sales” going on, you’re going to be hard pressed to find real deals. Most of the products prices are boosted then put on sale, and there’s no competition for lower prices. So if you are wanting buy something fun, bring money. While browsing I did find some decent prices on some decent products. At one booth that sold Western home furnishings I found some Melamine dishware, a plate set with a bronc rider that was only $20.00 and a salad bowl set with the same image that was only $ 30.00. They were very cute, but the salesman wasn’t very nice. Since I wasn’t a big spender, I really wasn’t worth his time. Beth and I both bought belts, one for myself, and one for Beth’s husband. Both were very well priced. Mine was a simple black brushed leather with silver brads and a stamped tongue and buckle flap, it needs a better buckle, but I only paid $40.00 for it. At the Official NWSS souvenir booth I was able to pick up a neat water bottle for only $10.00. It sports a blue metallic case with a cool mouth spout that is totally spill proof! You have to suck on the top to get liquid out of it. So, you can find nice things for ok prices, just not a lot of deals.
Beth and I went to go watch the $10,000 Gamblers Choice Jumpers, but before that we were treated to many jumping classes that kept the excitement going all day long. There were beautiful horses and very talented riders. No spills thank goodness, but lots of thrills.
Photo by Naked Eye Photography - Sheila Johnson
Of course the highlight was the Gamblers Choice. If you’ve never seen it, it consists of a number of jumps set up out in the arena at various heights, and with not distinguished course. Each jump is numbered with a point amount ranging from 40 to 110 points, depending on the difficulty and height of the jump. The rider must determine their own course and in a predetermined amount of time, you must jump as many jumps as possible to rack up as many points as you possibly can. You may only jump each obstacle no more than twice. If you knock a jump down you may not jump it again, and if you have only jumped it once, you loose the chance to earn those points again. In the end the person with the most points in the least amount of time wins. But before it’s over, they have one more chance at another 200 points, & to earn that, they must clear a 5 foot fence. If they knock it down though, they deduct 200 points from their previous total.
There were a lot of edge of your seat thrills during this competition, and everyone had a blast.
If you haven’t been to the Stock Show before, you have 8 more days of thrilling competitions to attend. I urge you to go and experience a thrill of a lifetime. I have been going since I was a little girl, I won’t say how long that has been, but suffice it to say that I remember meeting Chris LeDoux when he was still selling tapes out of the back of his pick up and Reba’s concert was free!
If you want to go check out the action online before you head out, go to www.nwss.com or www.nationalwestern.com Good luck and we'll see ya there!
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