PHOTOS: 30 longhorn cattle, horses with hairspray and a 7-year-old cowgirl during the 2024 Stock Show parade

Story by Parker Yamasaki & Photography by Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun

Parking Lot B on Blake Street in Denver usually smells like the backside of a city — industrial and greasy. But on the morning of the Stock Show Parade, as close to 60 trailers fill in the rows outside of Coors Field, it smells like horses, hay and for a brief moment, like fruit-scented hairspray. 

“Who wants some show glow?” Erin Michalski asks her horses. Michalski is here to ride with the Forever Cowgirls, a group that her mother started in 2012. Without responses she starts spraying their coats with a clear aerosol that makes no noticeable difference. “It does more in the summer,” she said, patting the haunches of her young, red-headed horse named Franny. It’ll make their coats shine if the sun comes out today, she explains. 

Since the 1950s the Stock Show Parade has signaled the start of the National Western Stock Show. Over 30 longhorn cattle led the way up 17th Street, followed by 58 groups in their finest Western wear, and rounded out by a herd of street sweepers. This year’s grand marshall is former Broncos linebacker Randy Gradishar, who also is a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

TOP: A pair of Percheron draft horses nudge each other during the National Western Stock Show Kick-off Parade. BOTTOM LEFT: Delsa Aghili, 5, center, watches the parade. BOTTOM RIGHT: Cowboys drive longhorn cattle past the historic Equitable Building on 17th Street.

By noon, when the parade started, the skies were still cloudy and the temperature hovered around 30 degrees. Ten women have shown up to ride with Cowgirls Forever — 20 degrees warmer and their numbers would be closer to 30, said Jean Gottenborg, Erin’s mother and the founder of the group. 

The women say that one of the telltale signs of a “real” cowgirl is someone who goes out for a ride when it’s below 50. The other signs are a level hat, dirty chaps and worn-in boots. 

Erin’s daughters, Adeline and Harper, also rode with the Forever Cowgirls. Harper, who is only 7 years old, spent the first hour or so of staging in Lot B getting chased by her older brother in circles around the trailers, which repeatedly unhinges the silk scarf around her neck and leaves it dangling from her shoulder. Repeatedly, one of the adults notices, calls her over, and knots it back up. 

LEFT: Seven-year-old Harper Michalski, wearing knee-length chinks made from her great-grandmother’s fur coat, for the first time rode in the National Western Stock Show parade without someone guiding her horse from the ground. TOP RIGHT: Cowgirls Forever members Erin Michalski and her daughter, Adeline. Erin’s mom, Jean Gottenborg, founded the women’s riding group. BOTTOM RIGHT: Carla Holst and David Michalski share a horse.

Harper is a real cowgirl. For the parade, she’s wearing chinks — knee-length chaps — made with fur from one of her great-grandmother’s coats and is riding Mister, a 26-year-old horse that her grandfather first rode in the Stock Show parade in 2011. 

This year Harper rode without a leader, someone to guide her horse from the ground. She has made this decision herself. With about an hour until the parade start, Harper strapped on her ridesafe helmet shaped like a Western Stetson and popped onto Mister’s back, making faces and hanging out while the rest of the women tacked and mounted their horses.

A dancer from the Mexican Rodeo Extravaganza twirls on 17th Street. Longhorn cattle from the Searle Ranch near Monument lead the parade uptown from Denver Union Station. Isabella Barela, 7, pats a horse while holding a stuffed pony of her own. “Horses are my favorite animals,” Isabella said.