The annual National Western Stock Show rode its way into Denver for another successful year on the books, and as the dust settles and the horse trailers pull away, people are left with the thrilling memories of watching the rodeo and the lingering smell of the petting zoo.
From January 6th to the 21st of 2024, there were over 670,000 attendees at this year’s 118th show, setting records as the 10th most attended show in the event’s history, even with the freezing cold temperatures and snow packed on the ground.
National Western truly lives up to their slogan, “The Super Bowl of Livestock Shows” with no struggle, as any person able to attend the show in the two and a half weeks always leaves with a smile and good memories, eager to come back the following year.
The show has everything under the sun to offer to everyone who attends, including but not limited to country boutiques and hat steaming stands, souvenir pictures with bulls and ponies, a petting zoo for the kids, show jumping and countless other cowboy competitions, and of course, hundreds of thousands of cows, pigs, sheep, and other livestock show-ready to be sold.
The 2024 Auction of Junior Livestock Champions raised over $500,000 across the top 8 animals shown, and totaling over $1.3 across all livestock shown, placing itself in history as the 2nd highest total sales in National Western history.
The steer that stole the #1 spot sold for $185,000 by 13 year old Croix Riemann from South
Credit: National Western Stock Show
Dakota. Though some of the money is donated to the National Western Scholarship Trust, the rest of the funds go directly to the winner. This auction is performed to inspire young cowboys and cowgirls to continue their lives in the agriculture industry.
Although the livestock are supposed to be the center of the show, many come for one other reason: the rodeo.
Of course the rodeo nights span from the classic PBR rodeo, semifinals, and finals, but also pink out night, Colorado v. The world, Cu Night, CSU night, Military Appreciation Pro Rodeo, and countless others.
Over the span of two hours, people watch everything from saddle-bronc and bareback, steer wrestling, calf roping, team roping, barrel racing, and bull riding. One of the crowd favorite events is mutton-busting: when young kids hold on for their lives as they ride atop sheep for as long as possible through the arena as the crowd cheers them on.
Through the show, the NWSS continues to do an amazing job keeping the crowd entertained with the Westernaires, a segment where you see young women trick-riding atop their horses, hanging on by one hand or swinging around the horse backwards as it gallops around the arena.
Beyond some of the most thrilling eight seconds of your day, to the livestock auctions and competitions, the stock show never fails to foster a sense of community and good spirits through the whole convention.
