Are all 4h groups this horrible?

Question

I went to the fair today and (of course) spent the majority of the time watching horses. They only have like 1 class a day there. Today was trail patterns. I knew their 4h program was small, but this was just pitiful. There wasn't a single horse in the barn. Every kid does almost every event, and poorly, I might add. I was utterly astonished at how horrible these guys were! Equitation wise and handling the horses, they did pretty dang good. But these people can not train!!!!! In the course of a couple hours, I saw a horse roll with its rider on it's back, a kids pony take off bucking (lol), and multiple riders fail to get their horse to sidestep over a pole. 50% of the time it ended in the horse rearing up or threatening to rear. The horses couldn't back up after going through the "gate". And in the speed events the other day, riders were falling all over. From a stand still. I didn't see a single person gallop the pole pattern (granted I did not watch the entire class). All these guys trotted or cantered. Tomorrow Ima go watch the dressage. This should be good, snort.
So, is this normal of 4h-ers? Or is our 4h group exceptionally mediocre?

Answer 1

That sounds like a pretty bad group of 4-h-ers.

I used to be in 4H, and most, if not all the riders were very good at what they were asked of.



We did barrels, poles, keyhole, flag, water races, banana races, dollar races (those last 3 are bareback if ya didn't know) all sorts of stuff, but only 2 or 3 out of our 9-10 riders had to trot/lope the courses.



We were all veryt good, but I have quit, because I was not learning enough, and Now I am signing up for possey. So, no, they are not all as mediocre as the retards you witnessed.

Answer 2

Well i wouldn't be so hard on the kids. I am currently in 4H, and what is "supposed to happen" in a 4H group is that the leader of their experience gives them pointers and depends on their experience level teaches them how to ride. So basically it would be the leaders that aren't doing their job. How old were the kids? Because i wouldn't expect them to be galloping their horses if they were just young. And most kids in 4H have ponies, which are stubborn and tend to rear or buck even if they are dead broke. If they are older kids and actually have horses, thats when you really worry. But you also have to take into consideration that most people just buy their kids very quiet horses, and sometimes they don't know side passing. Also some of the kids might just be showing for fun. But no this is not normal for 4Hers, because our group basically all shows and does very well!

So im thinking it might just be a inexperienced group :P

Answer 3

Yes.



lol...ok maybe not all...but mine certainly was. I no longer show horse in 4-h..i still love showing other animals in 4-h but not horse. in our 4-h horse program there were people who were insanely competitive (i got screamed at by the leader because i said pleasure was too slow for my horse (my horse is a barrel horse, and the last time i checked pleasure is slow...) she told me i didn't know how to ride, and she watches all of us "gamers" (i hate that term, i barrel race. I do not run poles or key or anything except in 4-h because i have to) and all we do is smoke and drink and never even brush our horses...just throwing out there that all of her children run games....but hey, whatever floats her boat.

So there are those people and a few others (like another family) who i believe are overly competitive for the 4-h level.

And then there's everyone else.

None of the children know how to take care of horses. Most of the kids parents do everything for them. If you were to ask them what they feed there horses they wouldn't have the slightest idea.

Im not even going to get into the riding...

There is a horse interview that everyone has to do. This year i won that, the guy who was interviewing me was so shocked that i was able to name all the parts of the horses leg (yes...just the leg) he said no one else had been able to do that all day (i was the 5th to last person).



I don't like the horse program because the kids either don't know how to ride and care for their horses, or the people (mostly the parents) are overly competitive. The farthest you can go is state and all you get is a little plaque...



So to shortly answer your question....yes :)

Answer 4

I was in 4h for a year, and the horses were all very well behaved (except for mine at the end of the day who decided to spook at a plastic bag. -_-)

SOME horses struggled with side passing. But that's probably because the riders were young, or maybe it was a young horse feeling overwhelmed.

One horse threw one small buck in the bareback class, but I must say that was certainly the rider's fault.



I watched 2 other local achievement days and they were both fine. A few glitches, but nothing as major as you stated.



So to answer your question, no.

Answer 5

Not all 4h-ers are like that. Odds are those only focused on their equitation and horse handling, and odds are those horses have never been trained for anything other than trail riding.