This past Thursday was the parade that opened the National Western Stock Show in Denver. To celebrate the history of the city, it opens with 1,000 head of longhorns being driven through downtown from Union Station to the fairgrounds. Naturally, I had to go check it out.
Mr. Denver. The bull, not the cowboys.
How cute are they?
I was wondering if they were the ones that would supply the longhorns.
I need to work on picking my spots for photography.
There were lots of cowboys and cowgirls to keep the critters moving.
I thought about being a mounted police officer once upon a time.
Can you have a parade without a stagecoach? Not out here!
When I heard “floats” I assumed they’d be pulled by tractors or trucks. Belgians are so much cooler.
The glitz begins . . .
A 1929 six-speed special, as the vanity plate proclaims. Looks like new!
Now that’s a get-up.
Is it bad that I forgot who he was, just that he was someone important?
Here’s the beer! Oh, it’s more people.
It ain’t a parade without a firetruck. (The little girl in front of me was waving to everybody. They were all waving back.)
My favorites in the draft world. Percherons.
I’m starting to think everyone around here owns a horse.
I’m not sure who they were, but there were about a gazillion of them.
They’re just like teddy bears! Evil, adorable, teddy bears.
The cavalry even made it.
With their chuck wagon. You know, between the two of them, those mules had an ear for each direction.
Need we say more?
Raise your hand if you’ve ever seen sleigh bells on a horse before?
Now this part of the parade I recognize from growing up in farm country.
A necessity after driving 1,000 head of cattle and at least 2,000 head of horses down city streets.
I hope you folks enjoyed the parade as much as I did! Hopefully I’ll get up to the stock show to get some pictures of that, too.
P.S. I might obsess a little over horses, but they were also 90% of the parade, so that many horse pictures isn’t totally my fault.
