MyHoofPrints

High school students can letter in riding!

Responding to many schools’ refusal to acknowledge equestrian disciplines as true sports, the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) offers a program allowing high school students to letter in riding.

"High school equestrians have earned their place among the most dedicated athletes," said John Long, USEF Chief Executive Officer on the organization's website. "Not only are they putting in long hours to train for and compete in the sport they love — they do so while taking the concept of teamwork to the highest level, forming a partnership with a horse to achieve their goals.

Requirements for lettering include USEF membership, 100 hours of riding and participation at two USEF competitions or five competitions at shows “affiliated with, or sanctioned by a horse show association.” Riders must complete a log documenting riding hours and competition results. Click here for complete application materials. Click here for more information on the USEF high school letter program.

And, if you haven't tried The Rider's Fitness Program, above, I use it, (and should use it more!) It compliments any riding program, does not require a gym (although having access to weight-lifting equipment makes it even better), and the exercises can be done at a variety of intensity levels. 

If you are a rider trying to lose weight, check out Horse & Rider blogger Sandy Denarski's tips.

The perfect Christmas gift: 4-H

Wondering what to give my college-age kids for Christmas, I got to thinking about the best gifts I ever gave them.

I remembered a quote by Gary Gadsby, a longtime stable owner, who once said, “The outside of a horse is good for the inside of a kid.” I would add that combining horses with 4-H makes that horse even more effective. Turns out I'm right. 4-H participation grows better kids. Research proves it:

“Participants in 4-H programs had higher school grades, greater emotional engagement in school, and were more likely to see themselves as going to college.” (Tufts University)

“4-H participation has a significant positive effect” on reading and math test scores. (University of Florida)

Done right, 4-H focuses on positive youth development. It is a time investment, but so is all good parenting. My childrens' 4-H careers are one of the best, and most life-forming, gifts they ever received. So, if you’re still out there looking for that perfect Christmas gift for your child, consider the gift of 4-H. To find your local 4-H office, follow this link: http://www.4-h.org/ (Scroll down the page and click on the “Find Now” button.)

P.S. I would also advocate getting the horse, but there are plenty of non-horse 4-H projects as well, including in many counties, a Horseless Horse 4-H project.

(Karin Livingston is a career 4-H leader specializing in horses, and the author of the teen horse novel, Winning Bet.)

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A winning lesson plan (for free!)

Teachers and Horseless Horse 4-H leaders - check out this free lesson plan, which integrates Colorado model content standards in Science (Animal Behavior) and Language Arts. In this lesson, students collaborate to explore the predator-prey relationship, and tell how one prey-animal species, horses, uses its ears. Have fun!

You may also enjoy these free horse quizzes.

(Karin Livingston taught school for 15 years, and is a career
4-H leader specializing in the horse project. She is the author of the horse novel, Winning Bet.)

Horse people: College student seeks help with survey

Hello, horse people!

I am conducting a survey for my Honors Thesis at Colorado State University (CSU). For my thesis, I am looking at the feasibility and market potential of a website that would offer certain tools to help horse owners and caretakers feed their horses better. I would appreciate your feedback through this survey. No personal information will be collected. Feel free to forward this survey to your other “horse friends”, but please do not take the survey more than once. The survey is open until Sunday, October 17th. Thank you!

Click here to take the survey!

Questions? Comments? Find me on Facebook!

(Kalinda Livingston, a graduate of the Colorado 4-H horse project, is a student in the College of Business at Colorado State University, Fort Collins.)

Help 4-H win $500,000

JC Penney has a great Facebook promotion in which it asks people to vote for their favorite among four after-school charities the retailer sponsors. One of the four charities will win $500,000. Just go to http://bit.ly/JCPCares1, and either log in to your existing Facebook account, or create a new one. All you have to do is "like" the project, and then you'll be allowed to vote.

Go 4-H! 

Practice your 4-H test skills with our free quizzes -- earn a certificate!

(Karin Livingston is a career 4-H leader specializing in horses, and the author of the young-adult horse novel, Winning Bet.)

 

20 questions: How well do you know leads, diagonals?

 Recently, we got a judge at a horse show who gave first place in our equitation class to a rider with gross lead and diagonal errors on the pattern. Worse, it happened in yet another class. Same horse. Same rider. These things happen, and maybe the judge forgot to wear glasses. You have to figure that days like this make up for that time you won a ribbon and didn’t really ride that well. Really though, everybody riding, judging or rating needs to have a firm grasp of leads and diagonals.

Good horsemen know where the horse’s feet are, and what those feet are doing. Judges, instructors, and raters in particular need to be able to see these things from a distance. Riders need to feel the differences for balanced and safer rides, in order to pass riding advancement levels tests, and yes, be more competitive.

How good are you at leads and diagonals? We offer 20 questions for you, and if you pass, you earn a certificate that you can print out. This is not just a quiz. It is a learning experience. You can watch the videos and take the quiz as many times as you want. Good luck! Click here, or on the photo to start.

If this quiz helped you, please:

 

Other quizzes:

Horse Safety: How do you rate?

Winning Bet: Reader's challenge

(Karin Livingston is a career 4-H leader specializing in horses, and the author of the young-adult horse novel, Winning Bet, available in hard copy and for e-readers.)

Top secret: How to find fair's 4-H horses

LARIMER COUNTY, Colorado – What horse show has top-notch arenas, beautiful barns, enthusiastic exhibitors, hundreds of show entries, historically totaling more than the Colorado state fair, yet remains a virtual unknown? The Larimer County Fair 4-H Horse Show, August 1st - 4th. (Yes, it starts this Sunday!)

But no more of this "unknown" business. The secret is out: Just click here for a complete schedule of when and where to find the 4-H horses and kids at this year’s fair.

Our youth would love to have you visit, and if you are a parent, day camp, day care, or any other kind of youth organization that needs an outing, the Larimer County Fair 4-H Horse Show is perfect. Our mix of youth and animals provides an education you get nowhere else.

Want to know another little secret? The Larimer County horse clubs all compete for the “Club Image Award”, part of which is how well they treat visitors. So feel free to stop a horse 4-H’er and ask a question or two. If you like what you hear, get the club member’s name or the club’s, and turn it in to the show office behind the Ranch-Way Arena grandstands.

Come join the fun! Come check out 4-H!

Go to the Larimer County 4-H Horse Project site

Directions to the fairgrounds

(Karin Livingston is a career 4-H horse leader, and author of the novel, Winning Bet, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble online, IndieBound.org stores, on the Kindle/iPad (use the Kindle store), and to librarians and retailers through the Ingram Book Group.)

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Surprise! New leeway in horse land use rules

FORT COLLINS, Colorado -- Larimer county commissioners expanded privileges for boarding stables' "use by right" Tuesday night, adding to new rules the right to give up to 15 lessons per week, and host non-profit activities for which a small fee is charged.

Commissioners unanimously approved a sweeping re-write of existing horse land use rules, and then, at the behest of commissioner Tom Donnelly, proceeded to surprise everybody attending the hearing by amending the proposal, which was more than a year and a half in development.

Proposal details (pre-amendments)

The amendments came following public concern regarding properties that host non-profit horse activities getting dinged for "trainee visits", and being forced into some sort of review, as well as comments that "use by right" did not go far enough.

The two amendments expand possible horse activities for small as well as large horse properties as a use by right. Larger operations will still have to undergo approvals ranging from public site plan review to a full special review because of client volume.

Commissioners thanked the public -- and everybody involved in developing the new rules -- for "extraordinary" feedback that helped them make their decision.

"We've seen other counties in this area pass regulations that I think have hurt the horse industry," said commissioner Steve Johnson, "and I think it's because they haven't taken the time to listen."

"Nobody needs to move to Weld County anymore," said commissioner Donnelly. 

"What I'm actually really excited about is that we are recognizing how important the equestrian industry is to Larimer County," said commissioner Lew Gaiter. "While we may need to go back and look at this again in a half year to a year ... we're a lot better off than we were a couple of hours ago. I think this is something we can all be very proud of."

Hearing quote highlights

(An ad-free version of this blog is available on the Amazon Kindle. Just search for "Hoofprints" on your device.")

4-H'ers: Can you multi-task in the saddle?

Over the years I developed flash cards to carry with me while instructing. I ran into a stack of the cards the other day. Here are 10 of the questions. (Answers, and why the ability to answer in the saddle is an important skill, follow.)

 1. Which knot can be used to tie a rope around your horse’s neck?

2. A horse that lopes on the left lead in front and the right lead behind is doing what?

3. True/False: A hackamore is a bridle without a bit.

4. True/False: The judge will call for the trot in Western Pleasure.

5. What three gaits will the judge call for in Western Equitation?

6. True/False: You should wrap the lead shank around your hand for a stronger hold.

7. True/False: The lope is an easy, rhythmical three-beat gait.

8. Name a four-beat gait.

'I can do it myself, thank you'

I met two young people a few days ago who reminded me why I do this volunteer stuff, anyway.

Much like Pony Club or the Scouts, Colorado’s 4-H Horse Project offers an achievement program in which members demonstrate higher and higher levels of skill. In this case, we are talking about horse knowledge and riding skills.

As an “expert”, my job is to go out and test youngsters. The first brave soul, a young lady, age eight, was as young as you can be and still get into the 4-H horse program.

At the early levels, rules say young or small riders may ask for adult help with things like saddling, bridling, or picking up hooves, as long as they can tell the adult what to do.

This child dragged a three-step mounting block around for the “tall” work, and refused help with the saddle, even when offered.

It took a little longer, and her uncle jumped in when we thought the saddle would land on her head, but she insisted, “I can do it myself!”

And she did do it herself, with flying colors.

My second youngster tested a higher level.

I like to talk with the riders while we test. They tell great stories and the conversation builds their ability to describe why they are doing what they are doing, a requirement at the higher levels.

Not so usual in today’s text-messaging culture, this boy used clear, complete sentences, and words like “encouragement”, “proper”, and “ma’am”.

I looked at his test sheet. It said age 17. I wondered whether this was in fact, a very small 17-year-old. I was afraid to ask though, and cause the family embarrassment. The high vocabulary continued through a brushing demonstration.

Next, the boy asked his gelding to pick up a hoof. He struggled a bit with the pressure point on the fetlock. Finally the horse picked up its foot, and the boy said, “Thank you.” He thanked the horse many more times during the test.

I gave in to curiosity and asked, “How old are you?”

“Nine,” he said.

His mother had accidentally filled in his horse’s age, 17, for the boy’s age on the test form.

“I have known few nine-year-olds that use the words you use,” I said, scratching out the “17” on his age line. “Why do you always thank your horse?”

“Because we all like to be thanked,” he said.

Just a few days ago I rediscovered two of life’s important lessons from two of the real experts in 4-H.

((Karin Livingston was a career 4-H leader specializing in horses, and is the author of the young-adult horse novel, Winning Bet.)