Archives-Youth

Lily Thomas is Awarded the 2022 BCHA Youth Scholarship!

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Lily and her colt Westley from the AQHA young horse development program My name is Lily, I have been riding pretty much my whole life but started showing when I was eight! I have been so blessed to get to learn to ride and care for horses as a youth and get to continue on to college! I ride all around locally and show in versatility ranch horse. I love the strong community Boulder County has given me to grow up in! I’m super excited to start my next chapter at Texas Tech where I will major in Agricultural Business and minor in Agricultural Communications. I am also very passionate about horse judging and will continue to learn and develop skills for judging in college. I’m furthering my equestrian experience by not only being on Tech’s Judging Team (and hopefully Ranch Horse Team), but I want to work in the equine industry. I would love to be a show manager. I’ve grown up in the industry and have loved showing, being a show manager, and working on getting people to my series as well as working with organizations like AQHA, PTHA, and APHA to get shows sanctioned. I’ve had horses my whole life. My family moved out on land when I was only a few months old, and horses followed. I rode for the first time when I was three. The horse was three also and he spun and bucked me off right away. There was nowhere to go but up! At eight I joined 4-H […]

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BCHA Announces its 2021 BCHA Youth Scholarship Recipients!

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PRESS RELEASE: AUGUST 20, 2021 The Boulder County Horse Association (BCHA) is thrilled to announce the winners of the 2021 BCHA Youth Scholarships: Nora Ditzel, $250 Teen Scholarship Madeline Williams, $750 Collegiate Scholarship These two very impressive young horsewomen demonstrated equestrian dedication, along with high standards of character in their community involvement and educational achievements. About Nora Ditzel Nora plans to use her BCHA Teen Scholarship award to further her education in reining and ranch horse versatility. She credits her pony, Butch, with getting her hooked on horses at the ripe old age of eight. Nora has had many mentors—both horse and human—especially Liz Johnson of Windy Creek Ranch. Through Liz, Nora has had the experience of helping to train four ponies over three years, and has been able to ride and show Liz’ horse Chex. Nora is now in her ninth year of Blazing Saddles 4-H. She has done everything from serving as the social director, parliamentarian and even historian. To think I didn’t even know there was such a thing as ‘parliamentarian’—way to go Nora! BCHA will be watching your progress and cheering you on, and we look forward to seeing you at BCHA events and activities! About Madeline Williams BCHA Collegiate Scholarship recipient Madeline (Maddie) Williams will apply her scholarship funds toward studies at Colorado State University, where she is pursuing a degree in Animal Science with a focus on Equine Sciences. On top of her studies, Maddie is the 2021 Boulder County Fair Lady-In-Waiting and 2022 Queen! As Rodeo Royalty she’s an

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Liz & Stitch

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This BCHA Share Your Story is by Liz French Liz French was awarded the BCHA Teen Scholarship in 2018. In her scholarship application she wrote about using the $250 award to further her dream of adopting a wild mustang. Fast forward several years and now Liz is a senior at Silver Creek High School in Longmont with applications out to numerous Universities. Before attending college, she plans to take a gap year to enjoy time with her adopted mustang and to travel abroad. BCHA is delighted to share this Here is an update from Liz on her experience adopting her wild mustang, Stitch. After attending a mustang makeover competition about five years ago, I started learning everything I could about the process of training a horse from scratch. I attended clinics, read books, watched videos, and generally furthered my horsemanship by riding and working with as many horses as possible. When the pandemic hit, I knew I wanted a project to keep me occupied during my senior year in high school and so I took to upgrading my facility to contain a wild horse (when I say “I,” I really mean that I oversaw my ever-supportive father as he built an overhang off our barn and extended the panels to reach the 6 foot minimum required by the BLM… thanks, dad!). Purchasing such building supplies is where my BCHA Youth Scholarship funds were allocated. Once the adoptions started opening back up was when the real work began. The process to adopt a mustang is a lengthy

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