New Team Horse Power Member

As an advocate of horses and competing, Team Horse Power is an exceptional program for teaching young riders and horse lovers safety skills and riding skills. As an new member to the Team Horse Power program I am excited to teach and lead young riders to the proper techniques and skills that help build a strong future with horses and riding. Being part of a great group of young adults that want to teach and expand the knowledge we have to inexperienced riders and horse lovers is inspiring to be more in life. I am so excited to be apart of teaching and leading 4-H horse members new to the Horsemanship Skills over the next year. What Penn State offers for 4-H horse members is growing in positive learning helps riders alike understand why this program is needed: safety of horse advocates throughout their life. -Emily

Starting Off The New Year!

When the weather gets warm, all I can think about is riding! As we come close to the beginning of show season and summer, we start preparing for hopefully another successful year as Team Horse Power. As a team, we begin our third year of promoting the Pennsylvania Horsemanship Skills. During the winter, 4-H'ers tend to get rusty on their horsemanship skills. As a member of THP, it is my job to help kids in my club, county, and outside counties by refreshing the horsemanship skills to them, or by introducing the importance of the skills to people who are unfamiliar with the program. As we travel from different counties, camps, and clinics, we hope to reach out to as many youth and adults as possible with the Horsemanship Skills. As a Level 2 Horsemanship Skills achiever, I can't stress enough how important and helpful the skills are to a equestrians everyday life at the stables or at the show! Horses are unpredictable, and being prepared for every situation is an essential element for a safe experience with your furry friend! I am excited for another year with THP and I look forward to spreading the Horsemanship Skills across Pennsylvania for the third year!

Clinton County Kickoff

In January, the Clinton County Horse Program held a Kickoff to start off the year at the Clinton County Extension office.  I was fortunate enough to get 5 minutes to talk about Team Horse Power.  Alexis Lingenfelter and I were the only Team Horse Power members in the audience, however I didn't know Alexis was going to be there, so I had it all planned out that I would speak by myself.  Halfway through my speech though, I was running out of ideas to talk about and I was looking for a little help.  Luckily, Alexis was there to help out, adding input of her own, and generally saving the day (like always).  Thanks to Alexis for helping out!

~Joey

Clarion County Horsemanship Clinic

Hello fellow horse people. Enjoying the spring weather? Need some help with polishing your horsemanship skills? Come to Clarion County Horsemanship Skills Clinic April 21st. Team Horse Power will be there teaching Level One skills. We will be helping perfect your skills and help you get ready to test. We will be teaching handling and riding skills. The handling skills are on the ground; some examples of the handling skills are leading, tying, and grooming. The riding skills include circles, walking, and trotting. Don't forget your helmet! Hopefully we will see you there! ~Angela

AYHC

Recently I had the opportunity to attend the American Youth Horse Council symposium in Virginia. Me and four other members plus our advisors put on a presentation to inform other horse lovers from all over the country about Team Horse Power. Our presentation went over really well, we were able to do two hands on activities with the group to showcase our abilities. The mop ponies that we made were a hit, we even gave away a few to the crowd! Not only were we there to give the presentation but we also got to attend many workshops that furthered our horsey knowledge. We actually got to see a horse work on a treadmill and learned some health facts! The symposium beneficial towards furthering my horse knowledge, but it was great because we were able to expose people to Team Horse Power from all over the country, even Alaska!!

Level 1-2 Road to Horsemanship Skills

Currently, in some counties of Pennsylvania, equine based 4H clubs are making testing for Horsemanship Skills Levels 1-2 mandatory. In Alleghany county, it is mandatory to have passed Level 1 before showing at the county horse show. Whithin these Levels, you are required to perform basic horsemanship skills that are excuted smoothly, properly and safely. Team Horse Power is a team of elite youths that have passed Levels 1-2. Team Horsepower will be holding demonstrations and clinics around the state. We will be working on improving and teaching other members the skills. A tecnique we have found to be very effective and educational is the "Road to Horsmanship Skills" program. In this program we use stations called "road blocks" & "rest stops" where groups of three or four kids practice individual skills with a member of our team. This allows us to work with many members on an idividual basis. This program can be done on horses or on our famous mop ponies. Keep on the lookout for one of our "Road to Horsemanship Skills" in a county near you!

Team Horse Power At The AYHC Symposium

Recently, on March 23 through the 25th, Team Horse Power was at the American Youth Horse Council Symposium in Herdon, Virginia. Not only did team members get to tour various "horse hot spots" in Virginia, we participated in various team building activities with other youth at the symposium. Many of us also particpated in the Hippology contest as well; we all definitely learned we are little fish in a big pond. The banquet was a big surprise on Saturday night, I'm sure nobody can forget Lew being hypnotized! But above all, the team members presented a very interactive and informative program Team Horse Power and the horsemanship skills prgram. It was a great success and we received a lot of good feedback. Well done in Virginia everyone!

Team Horse Power Phase II Training

Tomorrow, March 31st is the Phase II training for Team Horse Power.  A bit different this year, we are gathering at the ASI building at University Park.  We are going to be working on programming for this upcoming season, including planning programs for Ag Progress Days, the PA 4-H State Horse Show, and other clinics and events.

Additionally, we are going to work on blog and facebook postings.  What makes for good reading?  What captures your audience?  These are some of the issues we will address, in improving posts.

At lunch time, we will head to the barns for a tour, and to see the new babies.  Our tour guide, Justene Testa, is a former Team Horse Power member.  Thanks Justene, for taking the time to show us around!!

Other plans for the day include putting together kits to make your own Mop Pony.  These will be sold at the Ag Progress Days, to help support Team Horse Power.

See you all at Phase II!!!

Email Comment from AYHC

I had an email from Linda Starnes, the creator of the Mop Pony.  Among other things, she made the following comment about Team Horrse Power and the presentation.

"Your Team Horse Power members are truly impressive & an inspiration.  I'm so

glad that I was able to see them in action!   The youth & seeing that mop ponies

are making a difference - pretty much just made my year.  :)  You just never know sometimes.

THANK YOU so much for the presentation at AHYC."

Thanks Linda for your appreciation of the program!!

Team Horse Power Presentation at AYHC

The presentation was an overview of our Team Horse Power program and concept in front of an audience of adult educators and volunteers from all over the country. We began with introductions, led by Paige and Cheyenne. Bethany and Lew went into specifics on the program itself, including data on how many youth we have reached since the program has been put into action. JoAnn talked about youth development and the benefits the program has on older teens. Fran and Lauren talked about choosing the team from a youth perspective. Lauren led a rein demonstration for the check and release and soft and light hands regarding turning. Michele introduced the On the Road to Horsemanship Skills program and Paige did a figure eight demonstration using stick ponies. We included our own experiences and talked about how the program has helped us develop personally into better 4-Hers and develop our own skills and talents as well as giving back to the community. The presentation was well-received overall and we got a lot of positive feedback from the audience who are interested in implementing a similar program in their own areas.   copied from Michele Gannon's summary report

Hey Everyone!

Hope everyone is having a good spring and taking advantage of the beautiful riding weather!  Good luck to everyone who is attending any early shows and I hope to see you all on the 31st!
~Joey

Phase one training

Phase one training was tons of fun this year. It was great to see everyone again. It was really fun working with other 4-h members and their horses.

AYHC Symposium

This coming weekend several of the Team Horse Power members will be at the AYHC Symposium, in Herndon, VA to do a presentation about the THP program, explaining what it is about, how they became involved, and what being a member means to them.  We are excited to have this opportunity, and are looking forward to spending time at the symposium.  Good luck to all of you who are presenting.  Thanks for taking the time from your schedule to attend and help with the presentation.  See you in Virginia!!!

Team Horse Power Phase I Training

Thanks to all of you who participated in the Phase 1 training.  I think it was a great weekend!  Teaching at Leah Ann's barn was a good learninig experience for you all.  Thanks to the youth who acted as your guinea pigs, and allowed you to teach and teach again.  Good job all!