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Spring months means busy 4-Hers’ schedules

For the Silver Valley 4-H Riders, the last few months have been full of fun and quite educational

By Kyiera Heltman, Silver Valley 4-H Riders

For the Silver Valley 4-H Riders, the last few months have been full of fun and quite educational, from our monthly executive meetings to fun days and fundraisers. The following is what we have been up to the past few months.

All the way back to November, we had our first ride at the Ponoka ag event centre, which I may add, is a blessing and such an amazing facility to have in our community. We had a vital clinic and we learned how to take our horses vitals. We learned how to take their temperature, respiration and pulse; we checked the circulatory system and measured their height. We also did a skin pinch, which is a really quick, simple dehydration test. To do this simple test you take and pinch a piece of skin on the horse’s neck and if the hair doesn’t go back to normal within three seconds that means that the horse is dehydrated.

In December we had a mini Christmas party also hosted at the ag event centre. We participated in a Secret Santa gift exchange and then we rode. At our ride we played games such as “Commands,” which is sort of like Simon Says. On horses it is a little more difficult). We also tried barrel racing and we had an egg and spoon race on our horses and after that we had to try and make our horses step on the leftover eggs, which sounds like it would be easy but actually it’s very difficult. We did a mom’s pantry fundraiser and we raised over $900. We also got the opportunity to serve our community at the Klaglahachie dinner theatre.

We started February off with a day of multi species judging. This was a day full of learning all sorts of agricultural knowledge. We had people from all over central Alberta come to our community. On Feb . 6, after many practice rounds at home, we had our annual public speaking event, hosted at Ponoka First Baptist Church. Each 4-H member chose a topic about something that was near and dear to their heart or something that they were passionate about. There are specific requirements that have to be met in our public speaking speeches. After our speeches our judged we have an opportunity for advancing to other zones, districts and even competing provincially. We also had a 4-H night out and we got to go and watch a Rebels hockey game in Red Deer. Some members headed out to a great 4-H winter camp.

As our long awaited spring is just around the corner our schedule will be increasing. We have much to prepare for as our show season begins. I would like to thank all of the judges for kindly volunteering their time to judge our public speaking event. I would also like to thank everyone at the Ponoka ag event centre. Secondly, I would like to thank our club leader, all of the parents and our coaches for all your wise instruction. You all contribute to making Silver Valley 4-H Riders a great opportunity to learn, grow, advance and have a blast.