Meeting Minutes State Horse Advisory Committee Corvallis, Oregon March 7, 2009 The comments and recommendations in these minutes are for your information and study. It must be understood that recommendations are not official at this time. Counties have sixty days in which to provide reactions. Final decisions will be made by the State 4-H Faculty in concert with the State 4-H Advisory Council. Comments, reactions and suggestions are sought on all recommendations, program items and contents. Proposed changes to the PNW 4-H Horse Contest Guide must be approved by the PNW Management Team. Committee members present: Carol Harris, Rose Hall, Madison Mills, Amy Derby, Sonya Mathews, Jan Harer, Lisa Smart, LuAnn Breedon, Carrie Kaseberg, Darlene Reese Resource members present: Roberta Lundeberg, Candi Bothum, Joyce Stride, Peggy Ashford Guests present: Carolyn Jones, Veronica Butler State 4-H website: http://oregon.4h.oregonstate.edu State 4-H Horse Project website: http://oregon.4h.oregonstate.edu/horse-project-0 Spring Horse Classic The 2009 Spring Horse Classic will be held April 24-26 in Linn County (Albany). There was a slight problem when it was discovered the arena was double-booked, but we were able to work it out satisfactorily. They will build us an arena in another barn, and it should all work out fine. The 2010 contest will be held in Deschutes County, but we need a county to host the 2011 event. If your county is interested, please contact Roberta Lundeberg at the state office. It s nice when the entire event can be held at one facility, but that is not required. We can easily use one place Friday and Saturday, and a different place on Sunday for the judging contest. On Friday and Saturday, we need a place with six classrooms and large holding rooms. On Sunday, we need a covered arena. If your county hasn t hosted for awhile, it s time to think about doing it again!
State Fair The horse state fair will be held August 21-25, 2009. The schedule and handbook of rules are posted on the state website: http://oregon.4h.oregonstate.edu/state-horse-fair There are three main changes for this year: 1. All gaming contestants will have to do showmanship. If they have not previously done showmanship with a performance horse on Saturday, they will do showmanship Tuesday morning with their gaming horse. They will not do showmanship twice. 2. Members may ride more than one equitation seat if they meet the qualifying criteria. 3. Volunteer jobs will be assigned to counties ahead of time. The county will either need to provide a volunteer for the job or find someone to do the job. Judges for State Fair: Seniors: Doug Evenson, Robert Aycock, Sharon Zucker Intermediates: Anne Garrett, Gail Mann, Nancy Collins Trail: Vixen Barney Gaming Showmanship: Doug Evenson, Robert Aycock, Gail Mann Gaming: Vixen Barney Dressage: TBA Publications: Updates and Questions The Dressage Manual is now a PNW publication and is available online. Agents have a one-page errata sheet of the main changes they may insert into old manuals. The new PNW Driving Manual is in its final stages of editing. This manual, along with the Contest Guide changes to Driving, will go into effect October 1, 2009. The driving manual will also be available online. The Ranch Horse manual is also progressing. The first four sections (General Information, Ranchmanship, Working Ranch Horse, and Ranch Horse Trail) are available in a draft form to any county that requests them. Amy Derby hopes to have a draft of the Cow Working section done by the middle of March, and Candi Bothum hopes to have the Roping section done this month as well. Counties may use these draft versions this year while the entire manual is going through the editing process. Our hope is to have the finalized manual ready for October, 2009. Once the Driving Manual is completed and the Ranch Horse manual is at the editors, Roberta will begin work on revising the Horse Advancement Program. Possibly next year, the PNW group hopes to begin work on a new Colt Training manual. This would combine the current Oregon Colt Training Manual with material from Washington and Idaho.
Judges Trainings Counties are urged to send horse leaders and superintendents to the PNW 4-H Horse Judges Training that will be held October 1-4, 2009 at the Deschutes County Fairgrounds. Part of the training will be divided into three separate tracks with one for show management that is designed for horse leaders and show superintendents. Another track will be for established judges, and the last track is for those who want to become judges. Information on the training, the schedule of events, and registration forms are all available on the PNW Judges website: http://oregon.4h.oregonstate.edu/pnw-4h-horse-judges-list PNW Equine Research Project Randomly selected horse leaders have received a survey via email. The response rate so far has been tremendous. If you have not yet returned your survey, please do so. The survey for members is being mailed out this week. We are looking forward to getting the results in late summer or early fall. 4-H and OHSET A cooperative agreement has been written and signed between 4-H and OHSET. We hope this will take care of the issues that have arisen between the two organizations. (A copy of the agreement is attached at the end of these minutes.) Ground Training A new scoresheet was presented for Ground Training that matches the format used for other classes. This new scoresheet will NOT be used this year as we will have to do substantial retraining of our judges at the October training. The new system will begin use October, 2009. With the new scoring system, there will be three sections scored: 4-H member (20 points); Performance (40 points); and Safety (40 points). For the performance part, members will still select items to be attempted, but they must be chosen from the list on the back of the scoresheet. They must do a minimum of three items and a maximum of 10. Peggy Ashford will write brief descriptions of what can/should be included in each of the steps. Contest Guide Changes There are still reports from judges that counties do not have the most current version of the Contest Guide at their shows. The Contest Guide is available on-line. The date is on the last page and should be August, 2008. Attached is a list of the changes Oregon will propose to the PNW group. Next Meeting The next meeting will be Saturday, October 24, 2009 at OSU.
January 23, 2009 Cooperative Agreement Between Oregon High School Equestrian Teams, Inc. (OHSET) and Oregon 4-H Horse Programs Both organizations agree that many participating youth belong to OHSET and 4-H. Both programs have unique opportunities for high school youth and can operate complementary to each other with a small amount of communication; this communication will allow youth the benefit of both programs. Identified Challenges The 4-H 90-day rule. Not allowing other high school equestrian athletes to ride or share horses for the purpose of OHSET competition can create a hardship on a team/athlete who qualifies for the state competition. The state competition is usually the third week in May and can be closer than 90 days to some county fairs. Scheduling. OHSET has eight districts and each requires 3 district meets. Many of the participants in OHSET and 4-H activities are the same. County 4-H staff and District chairs need to work together to avoid major conflicts when possible. Additionally, the 4-H Spring Horse Classic (SHC) is during the OHSET season and meet conflicts with SHC have created significant challenges. Year round drill teams. As 4-H begins to allow county programs to have 4-H drill teams, there is concern that this may simply be an avenue for OHSET drill teams to practice year-round. Solutions The 4-H 90-day rule. Oregon 4-H will allow an exception so that other OHSET athletes may ride a 4-Her s horse for the sake of practice and OHSET state meet competition. This exception is only valid through the end of the OHSET State Championship Meet. Scheduling. OHSET District Chairs will identify the county 4-H staff responsible for horse programming in their district, and will communicate with them in order to make every possible effort to avoid scheduling important county horse events at the same time as district meets. Spring Horse Classic will continue to be on the same general dates as in the majority of previous years, the fourth weekend in April. Of course, all of this depends on the ability to get facilities (for both 4-H and OHSET) on days not infringing on the other s event. Year-round drill teams. It will remain the duty of OHSET coaches and District Chairs to determine if OHSET teams are practicing outside of their season. However, establishing a relationship with county 4-H staff, as stated above, will allow opportunity for 4-H staff to let District Chairs know if they have a 4-H drill team that appears to be all OHSET members from one team. Candi Bothum, OHSET, Inc. State Chair Roberta Lundeberg, Oregon 4-H Horse Programs
Proposed Contest Guide Changes for October 2009 Cover Add Effective Date and new photo Page 1 General Rules, 1 Add: Junior members may have assistance with saddling and bridling if needed. Anyone may have assistance for safety reasons. Page 4 Project Animal, 2 nd paragraph addition Members and parents must recognize that adjustments and/or choices may need to be made Page 5 Add back in: An exhibitor s hair must be worn in nets, braids, or other means to present a neat appearance and a clear view of the show number. (This was accidentally deleted from the paragraph in a previous revision.) Page 6 Western Clothing Add western equitation to first paragraph and remove stock seat. Page 6 Western Clothing & Equipment, Required: From first bullet, delete or jacket with collar Add to first optional bullet: jacket with collar Page 8 Hunt Seat Clothing, Optional Add: gloves (color optional) Page 9 Specific to Dressage, end of first paragraph Change 44 to 48 (this more closely follows dressage rules) Page 9 Saddle Seat Add to first paragraph: saddle seat equitation Page 17 Dressage, add after first paragraph At any given show, no rider may ride a specific dressage test more than once. If you ride more than one test, the first ride is your official scored ride. Page 19-25 There will be a new PNW Driving Section to match the new manual
Page 30 Ground Training, change 2 paragraphs Each contestant must give the judge, in advance, a ground training scoresheet that lists the items to be attempted. The scoresheet is available at county Extension Offices and on the Oregon State University 4-H website. Only age-appropriate items from the back of the scoresheet may be attempted. Contestants must attempt a minimum of three items and a maximum of ten items. Page 32 Gaming, Clothing and Tack Change sentence Reins must be one piece or knotted to Roping reins must be used. Page 34 Gaming: Penalties & General Disqualification, 3 rd paragraph Rubber bands are not allowed. (for all states) Page 34 Gaming: Penalties & General Disqualification, 3 rd paragraph Intentionally righting a pole is allowed with no penalty. (We are asking Washington to align with Oregon and Idaho and the industry standard.) Page 39 Two-Barrel Flag Race From first paragraph, delete the word hardwood in front of doweling. Page 40 NSCA Flag Race In second sentence, change wooden stake to round dowell.