Blue Ridge Equestrian Show Team Dominates At District Competition By Scott Nicholson Members of the Blue Ridge Equestrian 4-H show team are sitting tall in the saddle after dominating in the district competition and planning for larger events. Jessica Pitts rides “Hawk.” Photos submitted From left, members of the Blue Ridge Equestrian 4-H show team include Tara Fickling on “Goose,” Alex Vines on “Little Bit,” and Jessica Pitts on “Hawk.” The county’s 4-H horse team had disbanded a few years ago due to declining interest. Volunteer leader Dara Watson and riders Tara Fickling and Rachel Ward started a new group in March, 2004, with five founding members. The club has now expanded to 34 enrolled and active members, a horse show team of 12, a horse judging team of eight and a horse bowl team of four. The team practices once a week at Blowing Rock Equestrian Preserve, which hosts the club as well as providing funding and making T-shirts. Blowing Rock Equestrian Preserve offers free boarding for the club’s horses and allows members to train at the show grounds for free. Watson said the group works well as a team, but have to set their own individual goals. “The purpose of the group is to obtain the goals they set for themselves,” Watson said. The group also conducts community service projects like collecting items for Christmas shoe boxes or tsunami relief. The club also holds its own shows and participates in non-4-H events as well. On May 22, the team won all classes in its district horse competition, with the winners now headed for statewide meet. Jessica Pitts claimed Hunter Champion in this division with the best overall total point score, followed by Nicole Poyo in second as Reserve Hunter Champion. In the Senior Western Pleasure competition, Rachel Ward claimed the title of overall champion and Lauren Stein earned a fourth-place finish. In the Non-Trotting and Saddle Seat Division, the Blue Ridge Equestrian 4-H’s only Junior rider, Molly Clay, dominated her classes with four first-place wins and one third and earned the title of Gaited Horse Champion. Jessica Pitts placed second in the Ride-A-Buck class. In this class, saddles are taken off the horses and the competitor must ride bareback with a dollar bill placed under the thigh just above the knee. Whoever remains the longest with their dollar bill still in place takes all the money. Alex Vines won in the junior division barrel race with a time of 18.62 seconds. In the Senior division, Jessica Pitts won in 16.97 seconds and Rachel Ward rode in 19.92 seconds. Vines claimed the Gaming Champion title. Watson said, “They functioned better as a team than I’d ever seen before and that’s why they did so well.” Watson, 24, is a Watauga graduate who recently graduated from Appalachian State University. She grew up around horses and had a built-in connection to the equestrian world because her parents own Watsonatta Western World in Boone, which also sponsors the team. She knew many of the club members’ parents from her association with the store, which sells western and riding goods. “I love to see them have fun, and they have a lot of fun,” she said. “I have just as much fun as they do. It’s a really good group of girls.” Fickling, who is the group’s president, found out that the county had no 4-H horse team and helped start organizing one. She started riding at age 7 and had her first horse at 10. Fickling teaches 4-H classes and also gives private riding lessons as well. She was proud of her team’s performance in the 12-county competition. “We took champion in every single division, which is amazing for a group of about 10 girls,” she said. She said sponsors were important to the club because boarding the horses at outside events is expensive. She said the club members assist each other but also learn to be self-reliant. “First of all, you learn a lot of responsibility,” she said. “You do training and take care of paperwork (for the events). It’s just like a sports team, and you have to practice. We also do a lot of fund raising.” Most of the show team has their own horses, but they can also be used by the junior members both at practice and in the competition. It is the riders who are judged, not the horses. Fickling said the team members work together by helping each other prepare for events, taking care of horses if a member is sick, and providing encouragement. Watson said such teamwork was the key to the club’s success at the district competition. She said members helped prepare each other during their limited time to get to the ring, and also ran errands for each other. Pitts started riding six years ago and said “hanging out” is just as much fun as the competing. The show team gets together besides practice times, since they are friends as well as teammates. Stein, who has been riding seven years, has only been in the club a couple of months and the district competition was her first, though she has been in two other non-4-H shows. She said the club is spontaneous and exciting, and in addition to hanging out, the team members take on other projects such as bake sales and gardening. Next summer the club is going to horse camp in Wyoming. The equestrian club is currently organizing its own horse show that will be held at Blowing Rock Equestrian Preserve in September. The group is also participating in the Fourth of July parade. District winners will compete in the North Carolina 4-H horse show from July 6 to 10. State winners will go on to the Southern regional competition in Alabama. The club is divided into several sections: senior members (ages 14 to 19), horse show team, junior members (ages 9 to 13) and cloverbuds (ages 5 to 8). Jan Laird of Valle Crucis is volunteer with the younger members. Though all current club members are females, Watson said guys are welcome and encouraged to join as well. The club also needs sponsorships, particularly for next summer’s trip to a national horse camp that costs $550 per person. Any contributions can be made to the Blue Ridge Equestrian 4-H, P.O. Box 1581, Boone, NC 28607. For more information, call 264-8711.