By Sara Misura
When showing a horse the most important part is safety. This is exactly what was checked and seen at this last meeting.
Now that the weather is nicer, we are meeting at the Crawford County Fairgrounds for work meetings. A work meeting is where every 4Her brings their horse and rides with the rest of the club. The advisors supervise us and instruct us on different aspects at each meeting.
At this meeting we were taught about rail work and patterns. Rail work is when you ride your horse along the fence/rail at the gait asked for by the judge or announcer. The gaits performed during this time is the walk, trot, canter, stop, and back. Some riders are only in walk/trot classes so they will not canter.
Patterns are when there are cones set in specific spots marking where certain maneuvers need to be done. Each rider gets to look at the pattern on paper before running it. The cones will have letters, usually A, B, C, and D.
The pattern may tell you to trot at B, back at C, or canter a circle at D. Every pattern is different.
After riding we all get our horses untacked and in halters for showmanship. This is where you are on the ground leading your horse around at the walk, trot, stop, and back. When doing showmanship, you normally do a pattern similar to when riding except there is no cantering for anyone and you must set up your horse for an inspection by the judge. When setting up for your inspection you must move your horses feet so they are straight in line with each other and you must stand back where the judge can see the horse and you at all times.
This said, when the judge walks around your horse you must go from one side of your horse to the other and back depending on where the judge is at one particular time.
After both riding and showmanship the horses get a break to eat hay and get some water while tied to their trailers. During this time we have our business meeting where any activities or events are discussed and demonstrations are done. At this meeting demonstrations were done by Olivia Chase, Audra Meadows, and Liv Krassow.
We also had our community service day on Saturday April 16th at the Wyandot County Humane Society Horse Rescue. There we helped clean stalls and brush horses. The workers there were very nice and take care of an average of 50 horses a day. Most of the horses there are adoptable and need a loving home. They have minies, tall horses, short horses, bay horse, grey horse, and more. Our club had a lot of fun helping out and it was a great experience for us all.