Two students of Jefferson Morgan Middle-High School, Olivia Ricci and Madison Kovach, recently attended 13th annual District Horse and Pony show at the Westmoreland Fairgrounds.

The show kicked off on Saturday September 9th and ended on Sunday September 10th.  Saturday consisted of all showmanship classes, trail classes, western classes, pony classes, a small amount of English classes, and all the gaming classes. Sunday consisted of the rest of the English classes and carriage classes.

Madison showed in two classes; Western Showmanship Intermediate and Western Pleasure. She placed 7th out of 13 in her showmanship class and 6th out of 6 in her Western Pleasure. Olivia showed in cutback, barrels, keyhole, and pony classes. She placed 6th in her cutback class and 5th in her barrels class. Neither girls qualified for states this year, but will continue to show in open shows and train for next years show season! If you see them in the halls wish them luck for a better show year next year.

The girls participate in 4-H not only because they love working with their horses, but because 4-H benefits them in many ways. Doing things such as moving onto districts after their county show could qualify them for states which looks great for colleges. 4-H offers scholarships as well for many different things: going to districts could be one of these. 4-H also gets kids more involved in their community and teaches them such as caring, public speaking, how to have proper/good manners, how to care for another living thing, etc. The new year for 4-H will be starting this month and next, be sure to give it a thought!