Students from Colorado State’s animal and equine sciences could be found volunteering, working, and competing during winter break at the National Western Stock Show in Denver.
Members of the CSU Collegiate Stockgrowers club hosted the Colorado Beef Association’s booth in the expo hall for a week. The Seedstock Merchandisng Team had the bulls they’d been preparing for their sale in March down in the yards and in competition along with their heifers.
Ad
They also hosted a lecture by Dr. Temple Grandin, CSU animal science instructor and author, for producers at their booth. After the event she was interviewed by “Western Horseman” magazine.
Agriculture education major Shauna Brown worked behind the scenes filming all the line stocks shows, including the Angus carload show, which were broadcast online.
The Ag Ambassadors hosted an Ag experience booth in the children’s area. Sarah Wynkoop, a graduate student in the integrated resource management in agriculture program, worked in the yards for a second year on the chute crew. Many of the department’s judging teams competed for top honors in their categories.
Many people associate the National Western Stock show with the yards, livestock competitions, rodeos and the Wild West show, but English hunters and jumpers also competed during the second weekend, January 16-18.
Kim Rounds, animal science major, and Rachel Grasso, equine sciences major, took the class preparing horses for English competition as part of their curriculum. Competing at the stock show was the culmination of their training experience.
They prepped three school horses, Zane, Mona and Weston for the trailer ride down on January 15. Once the horses were checked in at the office and stalled, Rounds and Grasso hauled in the tack trunks, saddles, hay, and equipment and set up their area with CSU Equine Sciences drapery.
Grasso rode Weston and Rounds rode Zane in the same classes. Rounds also rode Mona in two other jumping categories. Hours of waiting between events made for long days for both horses and riders before packing up and trailering the horses back to the foothills campus late Saturday night.
For all the students who volunteered, worked and competed at stock show, the experience will be a lasting memory of their experience at CSU.
Dixie can be reached at blogs@collegian.com and on her Twitter page, @livestocklounge.
Ad
_______________
Do you want to try showing livestock? CSU’s Block & Bridle club is sponsoring the Little National Western Stock Show, a long-standing tradition that started when the school was still called Colorado A & M. This contest is open to all CSU Students.
For $30 you can sign up to show a steer, lamb, or hog provided by the Block & Bridle club. Gain valuable hands-on experience as you train, fit, and show an animal to exhibit. You can show in the novice or experienced category. As part of the competition, you are required to attend a safety class and complete 10 hours of practice before the show. You’ll meet students in the department of animal sciences, show with friends, win great prizes and enjoy a dinner catered by the CSU Meats Judging Team.
Sign up today!
Register for your animal and bring the $30 fee at the reception desk in the Animal Science building. Registration ends on Friday, February 27.
Show day will be April 17 at 4pm.
For more information contact Morgan Weinrich at mweinrich10@gmail.com.
_______
Save the date!
The CSU Seedstock Merchandising Team will hold their 39th annual bull sale on Saturday, March 28 at CSU’s Taylor Center at the Agricultural Research Development Education Center (ARDEC) on East County Rd 56 north of the Budweiser plant off I-25.
