Trial Runs

Erin Carr, an 11-year-old at Las Colinas School in Camarillo, is an avid 4-H Club member. Her special club activity is called the Horse Project. This weekend, during the annual Ventura County 4-H Horse Fair at Seaside Park, Erin will be competing in two equestrian events, “Showmanship” and “Walk/Trot English and Western.”

Interestingly, Erin doesn’t own a horse. You don’t have to as a prerequisite for joining the Horse Project or for competing this weekend. You just have to know your stuff. (Other projects include aviation, marine biology, computers and animal husbandry.)

She joined 4-H two years ago, she says, “because I liked horses all along and wanted to get my skills down.” Her preparation included everything from cleaning stalls at last year’s competition to monthly meetings of the Camarillo 4-H chapter, weekly private riding lessons, further practice astride horses owned by fellow 4-H members and participation in an annual “Horse Bowl,” a statewide competition similar to an academic decathlon but focused on equestrian art and science.

Like 10 others among the 60 Horse Project members from 4-H chapters in Ventura County, Erin will compete in a category with the quaint name “Horseless Class.” The parent-leader of the Horse Project in Camarillo, Jane Oberman, explains, “The ‘Horseless Class’ is a way for kids without a horse to get involved [in horsemanship] and distinguish themselves.”

This summer is a good time to join, she says, before the next full cycle of activities, which starts in the fall. Membership is open to boys and girls, 9 through 19.

A highlight of the Horse Fair will be the drill exhibitions. Teams from all around Ventura County will compete attired in costumes and executing specially choreographed mounted maneuvers related to this year’s theme, “Reaching for the Stars.”

“This might mean Hollywood or space travel,” Oberman says. “Last year it was a ‘private eye’ theme, and riders competed in trench coats and dark glasses.”

The drill team and most of the other competition classes are open only to kids who own horses. Friday through Sunday, visitors to the Horse Fair will see competitions called “Hunter Hack,” “Equitation Flat,” “Bi-Rangle Stake Race” and “California Speed Barrels.”

Competitors in these classes are divided by age. All classes are coed.

Oberman’s 13-year-old daughter, Sarah Jane, will participate in jumping competitions this weekend. (Her son Michael, 10, also belongs to 4-H. He joined the Lamb Project and next month will participate in the Ventura County Fair exhibiting a lamb he has raised.)

Oberman says the various Horse Project groups in Ventura County meet monthly in the homes of parents of 4-H members.

“It’s a good idea for any youngster thinking about pressuring their parents to get them a horse to enroll and find out what a responsibility it is,” she says. “It’s eye-opening,”

Indeed. Erin Carr’s experience is worth noting. “When I really see what all the work and time involved is,” she says, “I begin to wonder if I have all that time to spend.”

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BE THERE

Horse Fair--Annual Ventura County 4-H Club riding competition for kids, ages 9-19. Seaside Park, county fairgrounds, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free. Drill-team competition Saturday, 5 p.m. (805) 648-3367. For information about the Horse Project and other 4-H activities in Ventura County, call (805) 645-1470.