4-H: RJ Burnham shows great poise in first year of Horse showing

The beautiful thing about 4-H competitions are the fact that young or old the participant can do well.

Jeret Warren, a senior at Whitewater High and RJ Burnham, a ten-year-old Saco resident, have a major age gap, but both of them won the title Grand Champion at the 2014 Phillips County 4-H Horse Show.

Jeret, a ten year 4-H participant, sponsored by Todd and Carol Smith, won first place in Senior Showmanship and was a grand champion in the Ranch Horse IV category.

Warren fared well considering he used his dad’s 12 year old paint horse Sophie.

He credits his accomplishment to the obedience of Sophie.

“She just handles really good,” Warren told the PCN.

RJ Burnham is a two-year horseman, sponsored by James and Eldora Henry took home a Grand Champion trophy in Horsemanship II. His favorite part of the day was getting to ride his favorite horse Ruby.

“She’s an 11-year-old quarter horse who was really good at running barrels and stuff but once we got into 4-H we taught her to run these patterns,” said RJ Burnham, who attends Hinsdale Elementary.

When asked about other hobbies he liked doing, RJ responded in a way that most kids today wouldn’t. His answer, “Mostly just riding horses.”

Other than 4-H, RJ participates in many junior rodeo events such as barrel racing, keyhole, pole bending, arena and flag racing. He has even won a few events.

According to RJ, it doesn’t matter what speed or event, he just enjoyed riding.

The son of a horse trainer, RJ is a third generation horse rider in competition. His family owns seven horses at the Burnham Ranch. The company his family uses is OnStride Farms, a company that started in Saco a couple of years ago after owning a stable in Polson for years.

How good is his mother Dawn at training horses? Ruby has only done 4-H this year and the horse showed incredible control and obedience during RJ’s presentation. This comes after Ruby was about to be Dawn’s barrel racer.

“She was supposed to be my new barrel horse but you see somebody took her over,” she said.