4-H horse competition moves to fairgrounds

The Sanders County 4-H horse project leaders added a new activity to the fair this year and nearly a dozen kids from four clubs participated in the event.

The "Working Ranch Horse" competition is not purely new to 4-H members. It's usually held elsewhere and not during the fair, said Sanders County extension agent Wendy Carr, but for the first time it was conducted on the fairgrounds during the fair. Four girls competed in level one, the beginner class, and five girls and one boy competed in level two.

The 4-H members demonstrated their ranch horsemanship abilities at the fair last Thursday by separating cattle, head and heel roping, and doing patterns on horseback. They also had to take a 25-question quiz for level one and a 50-question quiz for level two. The level two contestants did their roping from their horses. Level one roped from the ground.

"These are all things they would do on a ranch. It might look a little different, like the sorting might be out in a big pasture and more of a cutting them out of the herd type situation rather than in a round pen, but sometimes you sort them in corrals," said Carr, whose daughters Mackenzie and Marina Tulloch competed at the level two class.

"The roping would eventually move to roping cattle for doctoring, etc. Right now, since this program is new, we have level one and level two participants. Level three moves from roping the dummy to roping live cattle. The knowledge test includes things they should know about horses and cattle in order to take care of them," said Carr.

The competition ran for almost four hours and when done revealed Madison Chojnacky of the Trout Creek Mavericks as the grand champion in level two, with Mackenzie Tulloch of the South Side Sparks of Plains as the reserve champion. In level one, Kyla Warnes of the Hot Springs Wranglers captured the grand and Matea Keefe of the Thompson Falls Mountaineers took the reserve.

"It went pretty well. I think the kids had a good time with the cattle sorting," said Shannon Chojnacky, who worked with Carr, the primary coordinator for the Working Ranch Horse event. In Sanders County, the event has been held for the last five years, but it has always been done before or after the fair and at a ranch in the county. Last year, it was held at the Whiskey Trail Ranch at Hot Springs. The Tulloch sisters, Chojnacky and Brooklynn Crain competed last year.

"Wendy Carr and the 4-H Horse leaders wanted to hold the competition during fair this year and have added quite a few more classes than what has been offered in the past," said Juli Thurston, who heads the 4-H program in Sanders County. She added that the working ranch horse competition is a good way for the kids to continue traditional education of ranch based horsemanship and cattle handling.