Day Camp - Learning & Fun!

Steph Reicks welcoming everyone

16 Howard County 4-Hers attended the first ever Team Howard County Horse Project Day Camp on Tuesday, 12/28.

The day camp, organized by Andie Vsetecka and Steph Reicks, was a great way for 4-Hers in Howard county to get together to learn more about horses and the 4-H Horse Jamboree competition coming up in March 2011.

Participants started the day out by taking a tour of Featherlite, hosted by their National Sales Manager, Randy Lewis.  Randy had 3 different types of livestock and horse trailers for us to look at and answered all of the group's great questions about trailer designs and uses.  Thanks, Randy!!

Then it was back to the Cresco Public Library for more horse talk.  The afternoon started off with a mock Quiz Bowl - much like the one that participants will compete in at the 4-H Horse Jamboree in Ames, March 26-27.  3 teams of 5 went up against each other answering questions ranging from veterinarian-stumping horse anatomy and genetics questions to basic horse information that all horse owners should know.

Tim Christopher explaining harness parts

Next up was the guest speaker, Tim Christopher.  Tim uses Mules on his farm, breaks and trains horses and also makes and sells harnesses, saddles and other tack from his workshop.  He talked to the group about mules and drafts and explained the harnesses used on different types of horses and mules doing different types of work all across the U.S.  Tim even shared his notebook with drawings and notes from his mule and horse related experiences traveling throughout the U.S.  Tim is full of information about horses and mules and the group really enjoyed listening to him.  Thanks, Tim!!

The participants finished off the day by diving into horse anatomy.  5 stations were set up using the laminated posters from the Horse Learning Laboratory Kit the horse project owns.  These laminated posters range from basic anatomy to skeletal and hoof anatomy.  One side shows the "answers" and the other side has velcro places for 4-Hers to place the names of the different parts.  This kit is a great resource.

The Day Camp was a great success with lots of fun and learning and hopefully will continue on for years to come.  A huge thank you goes out to Steph and Andie for coming up with the idea and for organizing and leading it, a big thank you to everyone that participated and (last but not least) another big thank you  to the leaders and parents that support all of these kids so that they can learn and grow through horses and 4-H!!