4-H Horse Show kicks off County Fair

Each year for at least the past 15, the 4-H Horse Show at the Milk River Pavilion in Malta has been the unofficial start of the Phillips County Fair.

This Saturday, a total of 14 contestants participated in 18 different events at the 4-H Horse Show and according to 4-H Administrative Assistant Ann Shettel, there were plenty of fresh faces displaying their horses on the day.

“We had some seniors graduate and we have a lot of new, first year (contestants) this year,” she said. “We have six in Horsemanship 1, which is our first year class.”

Contestants range in age from eight to 18 and those at the Pavilion on Saturday were Arena Niebur, Morgan McEwen, Elly Anderson, Brylee French, Addy Anderson, Gracie Anderson, Aidan Wiese, Kari Koss, Tova Anderson, Brett Wiebe, Lela Domire, Sidney Meeks and Charlee Rhodes.

Shettel said of the 18 events, four aren’t project classes, but rather held for fun.

would drive their car through. She said she and Snickers had been practicing the carwash portion of the event and things had gone a little rocky.

“She was scared of it, but she has gotten over it,” Meeks said. “Hopefully she will be okay with it today.”

Meeks will next take Snickers to the Rodeo this Sunday, an event she has been participating in since she was three. When she was just starting out, a good time for her would have been at about the minute mark. Now, her times are down in the 17 or 18 second range.

Wiebe, 13-years-old, had participated in two events before the lunch break and was excited about how her day had went up to that point (she would go on to compete in two more events during the day.)

“I got second in showmanship and Grand Champion in Horsemanship V,” she said.

Wiebe is in her fifth year of 4-H and has won the horsemanship category each year she has competed except for one.

“I wasn’t sure how I was going to do,” she said of the performance on Saturday. “When I do my pattern, my horse gets a little hot and doesn’t want to stand still and kind of doesn’t cooperate. So I didn’t know what she was going to do.”

Wiebe said that here horse, Bunny who she has owned since the steed was five, did indeed get hot and was being ornery, but everything worked out in the end.

“I have used a couple of different horses, but Bunny is probably my favorite,” she said.

Wiebe said she enjoys learning new things on her horse and felt she would do well in the final three events of the day, but was looking forwarded to one event more than others.

“I’m looking forward to (Ranch Horse) Trail because I like going through obstacles and my colt (Cady) hasn’t been trotting very well,” she said.

“We do that because they have been doing so much in trying to get there patterns right and we thought we would give them something else to do,” she said.

Right before breaking for lunch, Koss, Wiese and Meeks took to the arena to compete in the Horsemanship VI event.

Meeks, 13, has been in 4-H since she was eight and was pleased with how Saturday was progressing.

“I won Showmanship,” she said. “And then I got reserve in Horsemanship.”

Meeks rides a horse named Snickers who is nine, the only horse she was showing on the day. She said she was to compete in two more events on the day and was most looking forward to Ranch Horse Trail Class.

“You get to go through fun little things like a bridge and through the carwash,” she said. She explained that the carwash was a tarp cut-up to look like the water one