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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Local Horse Judging Team Earns National Championship

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For Immediate Release: November 16, 2020 Contact: Kendra McConnell, Coach 303-956-2885 The Colorado Arabian Horse Club (CAHC)/Region VIII Arabian Youth Horse Judging Team dominated the U.S. Arabian & Half-Arabian National Championship Youth Judging Contest on November 14, 2020. The contest is typically hosted during the national championship show held at Tulsa Expo Square, Tulsa, Okla., however this year it transitioned to a virtual format. The team members competed in both team and individual categories. As a team, they finished second in halter, first in performance, first in reasons and first overall, winning the National Championship by a significant margin. Team member Lily Thomas was named the Reserve High Individual Overall. Contestants from 4-H, FFA, Arabian Horse Association (AHA) affiliate clubs and collegiate teams from across the U.S. and Canada competed in the day-long contest split into three divisions totaling 23 teams and over 100 individuals. They evaluated ten classes of Arabians and Half-Arabians then delivered four sets of memorized oral reasons defending their placings in select classes which are scored on accuracy, terminology and presentation. CAHC/Region VIII team members included Madalyn Gabel of Lafayette, Colo., Jessica Jacobucci of Brighton, Colo., Moriah McQueen of Berthoud, Colo. and Lily Thomas of Longmont, Colo. Ava Wright of Erie, Colo. competed as an individual. Madalyn was ninth in halter, fifth in performance, first in reasons and fourth overall. Jessica was seventh in halter, eighth in performance, sixth in reasons and seventh overall. Moriah was third in performance, fifth in reasons and third overall. Lily was fourth in halter, first in

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BCHA Awards its Two Youth Scholarships

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Congratulations Maddie and Liz! When the BCHA Youth Club formed three years ago, one of its primary objectives was to raise money for two new youth equestrian scholarships. The BCHA board is pleased to announce the names of our first two recipients: Madeline “Maddie” Williams $750 Collegiate Scholarship Awardee Maddie spends almost all of her spare time either riding, training, or taking care of horses. Her special interests include natural horsemanship, ranch versatility, and reining. She has shown horses through 4-H at the Boulder County Fair and in St. Vrain shows, but she has also honed her equine evaluation skills as part of St Vrain’s Horse Judging Career Development Event Team. Her last year earning was 4th Place at the 2018 National FFA competition. Maddie also takes pride in her dairy cattle showmanship and judging skills. She will be attending Aims Community College this fall, and will graduate in two years with an Animal Science Associates Degree, after which she intends to transfer to CSU in Ft. Collins, to study Equine Veterinary Sciences. “I plan to beome a holistic equine veterinarian,” says Maddie, explaining that she wants to help horses using all kinds of healing techniques, including acupuncture, equine dentistry, farriering, chiropractic treatment, herbal remedies, and laser therapy. Liz French $250 Teen Scholarship Awardee Liz first sat on a horse at the tender age of two, this was also the age she first fell off a horse—she reports with a smile.From then on she was hooked. Liz recounts how her first pony, Lucky, taught her about getting back

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The 2019 BCHA Youth Scholarships

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The Boulder County Horse Association is pleased to announce that we are offering, two new youth scholarships for  Boulder County youth equestrians. Our equestrian scholarships are awarded to applicants who demonstrate the highest standards of character in community support, educational achievements and equestrian dedication. There are two scholarships for which you can apply: Collegiate $750 and/or Teen Scholarship $250. Both scholarships require the applicant to be a resident of Boulder County. You may apply for both scholarships if you meet the individual requirements; however, you can only be awarded one scholarship. For more information and to download the 2019 Youth Scholarship Application, please visit our Youth Scholarships page. Good Luck!

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Share Your Story: One Wild Ride #4

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The One Wild Ride mustang group wishes everyone a Happy New Year! Recently the discussion of trucks have come up. Every cowgirl or cowboy knows the importance of a good truck for your special horse, as well as a good trailer. Junior year is usually the year in which a high schooler starts driving, and as soon as we turn 16 many of us are on the roads. As of Winter Break, Maggie has gotten her first truck, a cherry red F-150, complete with a trailer hitch to pull a bumper pull horse trailer. My work with Drifter has been paying off. A few weeks ago, he was having trouble with transitioning into a lope, and would tend to bolt. For the smaller girls that ride him, this was a complication. Upon the arrival of the 110th National Western Stock Show, I proposed the idea of riding in the Kick Off Parade. With just three weeks to spare, we rounded up a group of 10 riders, and created a few formations to be able to wow the crowd. I was nervous, due to the fact that I was riding Drifter, and even though he had been riding better, this was his first parade. Most people choose to have the first parade for their horse be a small town gathering, with just a few groups of people on the sidelines, a few flags and parade floats, definitely not the National Western Stock Show Parade, harboring over 60 groups of riders, hundreds of horses, flags, and cheering people. As

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Share Your Story: Meet Alex

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Hi, my name is Alex Schoenberger and I am 15 years old. I go to Centaurus High School in Lafayette Colo. I began riding at Shiloh Farms with my cousins Kayla and Lauren, and I would ride their horse Nugget every once in a while. This soon started me on the path of loving and respecting horses the way I do now. I later moved to a new barn, the Flatirons Equestrian Center, and it was a perfect fit! This is where I soon met some of the best friends I have ever had: Emma, Maggie, Maddy, and Marguerite. In the 4th grade I started loosing all of my hair due to an autoimmune disease called alopecia, and horses were the only thing that could take my mind off of it. I ended up riding with Trish for three years before an 18-year-old appendix quarter horse gelding, Tazz, went up for sale at my barn. My grandma Elaine heard about him and went to great lengths to get him for me. This was my dream horse, he was an ex-eventer and was fully trained, the perfect first horse. I owned him for four years before I got one of the hardest calls I could ever imagine, Tazz was colicing. I stayed with him until 5:30 in the morning before he passed away. I was heart-broken and the only thing that really taught me to let go was a little eight year old, 15 hand Palomino pony name Macaroni that I had been working with before Tazz

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Series: Share Your Story—Emma & Maggie

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Last Sunday I was manning the registration table at the BCHA Horse Fair and met two amazing young woman, Emma and Maggie. I was so happy that they were interested in sharing their stories with BCHA and its membership in our new series ‘Sharing Your Story.’ The Boulder County Horse Association (BCHA) is so exciting about following this group of teens on their journey with horses, from training to competition, and even a Mustang Makeover! We look forward to your comments and more exciting stories from Emma and Maggie. – LindaP Hello BCHA community members! We are a small group of teens who are very excited to share our stories with you. We are embarking on several different journeys in which we are documenting with video, photography, and blog entries. To begin, we would like to introduce ourselves. Emma Hello! My name is Emma, I’m 16, and attend New Vista High School in Boulder, Colorado. I was raised on a ranch near Hygiene, and started as a hunter/jumper with my small Hafflinger pony. I rode both English and Western before taking western riding up completely and learning the ways of the working cowhorse discipline, training with a new trainer and riding new horses. I love working with horses, and spending all the extra time I have with them. Current Project: The project that I am currently working on is training a horse named Drifter (pictured above). He is a stocky 15.5 hands mustang/quarter horse gelding, and tends to be very spooky with paper, plastic, tarps, and just about anything that can fly

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