The Big Show

Tuesday was the day thecrazysheeplady and I drove in the rain to Louisville for our annual pilgrimage to the North American International Livestock Exposition.  NAILE is the BIG SHOW and pretty much culminates the show season for folks who do that sort of thing.  Many years ago,  when I thought raising purebred Romney sheep was my life-calling,  I was into it.  Now,  I love just going to watch and can't even imagine how I summoned up all the energy it took !  I often bump into people I met back then and the first thing they ask is if I am still raising sheep.  As I get older,  I try to imagine what that day will be like,  when I no longer have my sheep.  So far,  I can't even imagine it.  Anyway,  I'm taking the Scarlett O'Hara approach,  "I'll think about that tomorrow".

It's fun to walk around and see all the different breeds of sheep,  just waiting for their moment in the show ring.  Actually,  the show ring is the last thing on a sheep's mind.  As long as the food shows up when it's supposed to,  they mostly resign themselves to lounging in their straw filled pens,  probably dreaming of green pastures and their own familiar barn back home.   So many of them were standing with their heads resting on the top rail of their pens, as if to say, "Is it over yet?"  Tomorrow is the end of the show and you could tell that some of them were ready to get in the trailer and head home.

 

 
Sara has a great little video of this goofy little Tunis ram looking for a fight.  What on earth was he thinking?  Testosterone was definitely in charge.  The big guy treated the little one like he was a gnat buzzing around,  when he could have stepped over the side of the pen and finished him off !

We also wandered around the commercial area,  checking out sheep equipment and looking for sheepy stuff.  We found a really good vendor with some of the best sheep merchandise ever.  It looks like her website is a work in progress,  but you might check back later or catch her at a show near you.

( Love the bed-head look ! )