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April 21, 2008

Horsing around at the fairgrounds

By Charles Oliver

It’s difficult to say which is the more impressive part of barrel racing. The horses thundering past the barrels, coming within inches without toppling them over. Or the young girls, who weigh maybe a 10th of the animals they ride, guiding them through the barrels with what seems to be little more than light touches.

“It’s a fun sport,” said Sara Logan. “It’s a real adrenaline rush.”

Logan described the scene as another rider, Taylor King, demonstrated what barrel racing was all about Saturday at the North Georgia Fairgrounds.

The demonstration was held as part of the Whitfield County 4-H Equine Day, co-sponsored by the 4-H and the Whitfield County Saddle Club.

“In Whitfield County, the agricultural extension agent has been open for several years. A lot of the schools and students don’t know what their agricultural options are,” said county extension agent Brenda Jackson. “I wanted to introduce the youth in the area to a little bit of livestock, a little bit of agriculture and all of the neat things that can be done with a horse.”

Members of the Saddle Club came to demonstrate some of those “neat things” such as barrel racing and to answer questions from the children attending the event.

“Based on the questions, some of them have a horse. Several of them want a horse, but I don’t think most of them are very familiar with horses. Most of them live in the Dalton area, so they don’t have a lot of opportunities to have a horse, living in a city,” said Monica McGahey, president of the Saddle Club.

Club members brought about 25 horses. In addition, a veterinarian was scheduled to talk in the afternoon about horses’ health needs and Jackson had asked a representative from Purina-Mills to talk about the nutritional needs of the animals.

4-H members from various schools across the county attended the event and were obviously excited to see the horses in action.

“I like horses. I’ve ridden them before. We go to summer day camps that have horses,” said Lilliann Sanchez.

Sanchez and several other 4-H students were putting temporary 4-H tattoos on children who wanted them while others worked in the concession stand.



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