On November 2-5, sixteen 4-H members from across NYS travelled to the 2017 Eastern National 4-H Horse Roundup held in Louisville, Kentucky. These 4-H members qualified to represent their NYS 4-H horse teams by placing highest in their respective 4-H NYS contest disciplines of communications, horse bowl, horse judging or hippology.
The NYS 4-H Horse Judging Team consisted of Emily Boldt (Stafford), Rachel Snider (Spencerport), Sohela Dhillon (Binghampton), and Alexandria Tarbell (Corfu). The team was coached by John Steeves (Rochester), Deb Baris (LeRoy), and Tara Defendorf (Hilton). Attending the competition to coach the team was John Steeves.
The 4-H members travelled to Kentucky by bus on Thursday and spent Friday touring local horse themed attractions. On Friday morning they began their tours at Keeneland and followed that to head off to Kentucky Horse Park. After touring the horse park, the group moved on with their travels to Churchill Downs. Once the touring came to a close the teams spent the night with last minute studying and support from their coaches.
On Saturday, the 4-H members participated in their respective competitions. The 4-H Horse Judging Team spent all morning judging horse classes followed by an afternoon of presenting oral reasons to the judges to attest as to why they placed the classes as they did.
The NYS 4-H Horse Judging Team placed 8th overall in the competition. In addition, the team won 7th overall in the oral reasons portion and 9th overall in the performance portion of the contest. Team member Rachel Snider won 10th place overall in the oral reasons section of the contest.
If you would like to learn more about the 4-H Horse Program or other 4-H programs in your area, please contact your local Cornell Cooperative Extension Association.
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