Local 4-H'er takes second at competition

The Easy Rider’s 4-H Club continues to represent the Silver Valley well — particularly the young Kenna Stanley.

Stanley, 9, recently competed in the Kootenai/Shoshone County 4-H Oral Presentation Contest and finished as the Reserve Champion in second place overall in her age division.

“How many people could stand up in front of strangers and talk for over seven minutes?” club director (and Kenna’s grandmother) Leslee Stanley asked. “The contest rules require presentations to be on any topic related to their 4-H project and the Junior Division time limit is between five to eight minutes.”

Competing against other 8-10 year-olds, Stanley tackled the subject of “Bridles and Bits,” specifically how they related to her ongoing horse project.

“Kenna showed the parts of a headstall and the different styles of headstalls, the three types of bridles: Hackamores-Bosal & Mechanical, Snaffle and Curb, and common bits,” her grandmother said. “She explained the different types of brides, that snaffles were direct pressure with hundreds of different mouthpieces, a training bit, and how to put it on the headstall correctly.”

Kenna also presented examples of the snaffle bits, including O-rings, egg-butt, D-rings and full-check snaffles.

Her in-depth knowledge impressed the judges, but she wasn’t done yet.

“Kenna explained that you must use a curb strap with a snaffle to keep from pulling the bit through the horse’s mouth,” Leslee said. “She also showed different types of curb straps such as chain, flat chain, and leather chin straps stressing that chains that don’t lay flat against the horse’s chin groove are not allowed in competition because they are too harsh. She went on to show the parts of a curb bit, demonstrating that curbs are a leverage bit, and the longer the shank and purchase the more leverage makes those bits more severe.”

Kenna also detailed how horses do not like aluminum bits because they are simply too light and generally cause the horse’s mouth to dry out.

One of the requirements of the presentation was to summarize all of the information that she presented, cite her sources, and then subsequently answer any questions that were asked of her by the panel of judges.

4-H is a U.S.-based network of youth organizations whose mission is engaging youth to reach their fullest potential while advancing the field of youth development.

In the U.S., the organization is administered by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The goal of 4-H is to develop the citizenship, leadership, responsibility and life skills of youth through experiential learning programs and a positive youth development approach.

Though typically thought of as an agriculturally focused organization as a result of its history, 4-H today focuses on citizenship, healthy living, science, engineering and technology programs.

The Easy Riders has started the new project year and invites anyone ages 8-18 years old interested in learning about horses to come join us.

Meetings are Tuesday evenings at 6 p.m.

For more information, text Leslee Stanley at 208-512-1566.