Activities

Our monthly meetings are on the fourth Monday of each month unless it is a holiday.  Meetings are at Vida Nueva Ranch, 6500 FM 1948 W., Burton, TX 77835.  Meetings are held in the horse barn or house depending on the weather and what is planned for that day.  This year, we will have one of the kids in a club leadership role share information about a specific horse related topic at each meeting.  We always have drinks and refreshments provided. 

Held each Monday. There are Junior, Intermediate, and Senior teams for anyone interested in learning how to judge horses and give reasons.  We will even be having some live practices in the arena!  At the beginning of the year, our senior team members focus on the judging competition at the National Cutting Horse Association Futurity in December.  This judging opportunity is only open to senior and collegiate-level teams, and intermediate and junior-level teams will be split off to focus on more traditional horse judging classes during this time. During the spring, we will practice for contests including the San Antonio Livestock Show & Rodeo, Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo, District 11 Horse Judging Contest, and Texas 4-H State Roundup Judging Contest. Our coach, Cheyenne Jacobson, grew up judging in 4-H and was a member of the Fightin' Texas Aggie Horse Judging Team at Texas A&M University. 

We combine practices for Horse Quiz Bowl & Hippology because the information we learn helps in both competitions.  We play fun games and learn all sorts of interesting information.  For anyone who is not aware of what “Hippology” is….it is “the study of horses.”  The coaches for Quiz Bowl & Hippology are Miriam Grace Faske & Rachel Faske.  Our Horse Quiz Bowl & Hippology practices are usually on Thursday evenings, but sometimes we play each other online in Quizlet so make sure you get signed up if you are interested.  There’s a lot of study material in our private Quizlet class online. 

Throughout the year, we host and attend clinics from various different equine disciplines and events.  We try to post all clinics on our Facebook page and group, as well as add them to our upcoming events hand-out as we have them scheduled.  This year we plan to try and have a clinic opportunity each month. 

Do you want to ride, but don’t have a horse or need some help with the horse you have?  If so, these fun filled evenings are perfect for you.  Kids are welcome to bring their horses and work on their riding skills or if you are a beginner and would like to give horseback riding a try, come out and join in the fun!  We have seen so many children grow through this experience, and so many of the horses have made huge strides in their training from the skills we teach on Open Arena Nights. 

Our club has several service projects planned for this year.  Last year we washed all the horses at Camp for All, a camp for children with disabilities and special needs. We will find a similar project this year.  We also plan to ring the bells as a club for the Salvation Army at Christmas time.  We did a fundraiser for the club called “Christmas Ponies.”  This project involves taking two precious miniature horses dressed up in their Christmas best to South Texas Tack for a photo prop.  The community loved it!  I have recently been contacted about helping with a community beautification program also.  That will be later this fall. 

Held in the fall, this contest lets members share their favorite horse-related photographs! Additional details about the next contest will be posted on our Facebook page and group. 

Held in the spring, this is one of our newer contests, and it has been a huge success! Our members enjoy making horse-related art and sharing if with the club! Additional details about the next contest will be posted on our Facebook page and group. 

Held in both the spring and fall. This fundraiser is so fun to put on and helps raise money for the activities that the club offers. This past year, we had about 300 teams entered in the goat roping, and we are hoping this will grow each year! 

We are excited for our upcoming Summer Series Show & Rodeo! The first five weeks of the series are our rodeo, and the last three weeks are our show. This series is open only to Washington County 4-H members in good standing. You can find more information on the summer series portion of our website here! 

4-H offers both District and State Horse Shows for members.  These are held in the spring and summer.  We will do our best to keep you updated on when validations are due and the scheduling of these shows as they approach.