FFA Horse Judging
- Woodlawn FFA recently attended the Mt. Vernon Saddle Club horse-judging event
- Team placed third overall
- Kallista Fitzjerrells placed 4th
- Shaylin Arnold placed 12th
- Blaine Jennings placed 15th
Woodlawn FFA competed in the Annual Horse Judging event which was held at the Mt. Vernon Saddle Club. What is horse judging you may ask? During this event, teams of five students from different chapters (districts) arrive and follow up with a horse clinic. The clinic tells you what to look for, and allows you to ask questions if you are a newer member on your team. After you complete the clinic, you are then moved into five random groups of people so that advantages, such as having someone from the same school and cheating off of them, isn’t an option.
After the teams are chosen, the “no talking” rule becomes enforced, and the groups begin judging group by group. Five horses come out and you place them in order from best to worst on your score card. When finished sorting them, you hand your answer card to the leader of your chapter and write on a separate piece of paper what order you put 1-5. After all of the cards are in, the selection of horses from best to worst is announced. You will then check to see if you got the correct order, and keep track of how well you are competing in the event.
Soon after the horses are set in order, the next group of horses will be brought in. At the end, there will end up being five total rounds of horses to judge and cards will then be scored in another building. This year’s team consisted of Kallista Fitzjerrells, Blaine Jennings, Lillian Mischke, Joel Hayse, and Shaylin Arnold. Overall, the team did well and placed third, as well as individual placings. Kallista Fitzjerrells placed 4th, Shaylin Arnold placed 12th, and Blaine Jennings placed 15th.
