Colts & Fillies 4-H Club Takes The 'Lead'

The Colts and Fillies 4-H club had their first arena practice June 23 at the Kimball arena. Everyone was very excited to start riding and getting prepared for the fair.

At the start of the practice, Lavalla Reher talked with all of the members present about goals that they wanted to accomplish in the coming year. The goals ranged from getting better at trail and walking over the tarp, loping comfortably, and getting to know their new horses.

The next thing they talked about was how to feel which "lead" your horse is in. A lead is defined as when a horse is loping or galloping, the legs on one side of its body lead, or reach forward farther than the legs on the other side. The shoulder going further forward, and is last hitting the ground between each step or stride, is the "lead."

To explain this, Lavalla had all of the members form a circle around her and her horse Elmo. She had them walk around in the previously formed circle and call out "left" or "right" whenever they thought they felt their horse put down the designated hoof.

After this exercise was over, Lavalla and Mia Varra split the group into two smaller groups. They both

worked on different but necessary assets to showing your horse.

Mia worked on stops and spins for the reining class. She also worked on the correct form for both. Lavalla, on the other hand, worked on basic commands or call signs for a pleasure class. After a while they switched groups so that everyone got the chance to work on these skills. At the end of practice, the members got to work on speed events, barrels and poles.

The club will practice most Tuesdays and Thursdays leading up to the fair Aug, 8-15.