| Saddliers
to compete at state
On Sunday, July 10th, after spending the previous day at the Idaho County Horse Show at the Grangeville Border Days arena, seven young ladies began their journey to Boise, Idaho and the State 4-H Competition in Illustrated Talk, Horse Bowl, and Horse Judging. 
The 2005 Idaho County Horse Bowl Team is made up of 4 Cottonwood Saddliers members: Adeline Lustig, daughter of Ed and Nancy Lustig, Kayla Uhlenkott, daughter of Pat and Connie Uhlenkott, Natosha Schaeffer, daughter of Scott and Michelle Schaeffer, and Kelly Edwards, daughter of Dr. Jeff and Helen Edwards. The 2005 Idaho County Horse Judging Team is made up of Adeline Lustig, Top Senior Individual; Makayla Schaeffer, daughter of Scott and Michelle Schaeffer and member of the Saddliers; Top Junior Individual; Alanna Kudebeh, daughter of John and Paula Kudebeh of Grangeville, also a member of the Cottonwood Saddliers, and Kari Fogleman, Grangeville, member of the Horses R Us Horse Group in Grangeville. We also took down one member of the Saddliers who judged individually at state competition: NaTosha Schaeffer who is also this year’s Top Intermediate Individual. After arriving in Boise and checking into our motel rooms, the young ladies tried to relax and get ready for the next day’s competition that was going to be held at the Capital High School in Boise. First up were the Illustrated Talk competition starting at 8:30 July 11th, where Adeline Lustig, daughter of Ed and Nancy Lustig gave a very informative Illustrated Talk on “Laminitis” the disease of the horse’s hoof. She did not place in the top 10 competitors, but Idaho County should be very proud of Adeline and her accomplishments. Maybe one reason why she didn’t do as well as she would have hoped was because she know that her teammates were waiting outside in the hall, waiting for her to lead them in the Horse Bowl Competition that was to begin at 10 AM that morning. Adeline was elected Captain of the team after competing against other members of the Cottonwood Saddliers to make the Horse Bowl Team. The team’s coach was Helen Edwards. We made the trip to state by competing and winning at the county competition, traveling to Moscow to participate in the District Competition against teams from Clearwater, Bonner, and Kootenai counties, placing third to qualify to attend the State competition on July 11th in Boise. There, we  again
went head to head against Kootenai County, our nemesis in past years’ competition,
where we made a historic breakthrough at State and beat them our first
game! We then went up against a very good team from the Boise area,
which beat us handily. We were then in a do or die situation having
to win our third match. Horse Bowl competition is based on a two
loses and your out format, so we had our work cut out for us. We
bat the team of “3 Gals and a Guy” putting us back to face Kootenai county
once more. Our good luck didn’t hold out for us, however, and we
ended up in fourth place, a few points shy of qualifying to attend National
competition.
July 12, we woke to hot temperatures. Our horse judging team and individual gave a valiant fight, but we did not find ourselves in the top three team placing that qualified for National Competitions. The girls all did a very good job. They had to judge four halter classes: Miniatures, Appaloosa Mare, Aged QH Mares, Aged QH Geldings; and four riding classes: Hunt Seat; Western Pleasure; Western Equitation and Reining. They also had to give two sets of oral reasons, one on the Aged QH Geldings, and the other on the Reining Class. Although we didn’t place in the top three, the young ladies competing should be commended for their dedication to both the Horse Bowl and Horse Judging competitions they participated in. |
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