By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
When you already have everything you need, how can you justify a need for more?
That was the question 14-year-old Cecilia Wurm asked herself as she prepared to write an essay for the “Funding Your Horse Dream” contest put on by the Tri-County Trail Association. The perceptive teen therefore turned her story around and shined the light on another equestrian.
Local horsewoman Kathy Burton is a member of the Tri-County Trail Association and decided to pass along the essay contest information to a few of the neighborhood kids. The essay had to be about a young rider, their horse, and why a grant would help with their various horse-related activities. Burton added that the incentive behind the contest, other than the prize, was to get youth more involved with horses and their families. How the money was used was up to the discretion of the rider, but Burton said it was typically used for things like going to the state fair, purchasing new tack or show clothes, paying the veterinarian bills, or buying feed.
Burton is no stranger to the Wurm family, having given riding lessons to Wurm as she got started in the equestrian industry, so making the teen aware of the contest was a simple thing that turned out to be a very good deed.
Burton was not surprised by Wurm’s decision for the subject of her essay. Before submitting it, Wurm read it over the phone to Burton.
“She was paying it forward,” Burton acknowledged.
The association usually holds a fundraiser earlier in the year and the money raised then would go to as many grants as they could get for the children. The winners were announced on Aug. 20 during an ox roast event. The event organizers held Wurm’s award until the very end due to the emotional nature of her essay.
Rather than write about how she could use $250 for her horse, Wurm instead wrote her essay on a fellow horsewoman who recently got into the game. Sheena Parsons began riding this last 4-H year with Wurm’s mother’s horse, Buddy, and the two became good friends, but funding her horse dream was not easy for Parsons.
The sentiment behind Wurm’s essay moved the association so much that they held her award to the very end so the essay could be read aloud. While Wurm accepted the award, Parsons, who also attended the ox roast, was the recipient of a new pair of boots, which were anonymously donated after one of the organizers read the essay.
“I have everything, but there is another who doesn’t have as much as I have,” Wurm said when asked why she wrote the essay on a fellow 4-H member. “I felt better (giving the award) than actually receiving it. It felt better to give than to get.”
Wurm also credited Burton and her husband for their work with her when she first got started.
“They helped me become the horse person I am today,” Wurm said.
Wurm’s essay can be read in its entirety below.
“That one horse that changed my life” by Cecilia Wurm
My name is Cecilia Wurm. I am a member of the “Young Riders” 4-H in Crawford county Ohio.
I would like to start off my essay by being grateful. Thank you to everyone who has helped and encouraged me along my horsemanship journey.
I am the daughter of a single parent. Although we always have the things we need, we don’t always have the money for extras. With that being said, I would first like to thank my mentors Randy and Kathy Burton. For without them I would never have had the opportunity to own the horse I now enjoy showing and trailriding.
They started by giving me lessons. Later that year they lent me the funds to purchase the most beautiful paint gelding named “Charlie”. We made $50.00 payments until he was paid off in the fall. Along with Charlie came a free saddle and bridle. The Burtons housed Charlie for me while we built stalls and made pasture. They made the impossible a reality for me.
This grant is important to me because I am now mentoring a young 4-Her. Her name is Sheena Parsons. She also comes from a single parent family. She is borrowing my mother’s horse “Buddy” for 4-H this year. I would like to use the grant funds to help her buy the things she cannot afford for the county 4-H shows. She is borrowing tack. She needs show clothing and most of all boots. Her feet are a size 4, but she is putting her poor feet into a size 2. We haven’t been able to find her a new pair that is affordable for her.
Through the help of generous friends I have fulfilled my equine dream of showing at open shows, the county fair, and also state fair.
Please help me and the next one in line. One day she may be giving her hand to help the next child behind her.