4H Regional Day

I've been on the county 4H Foundation board for quite a while, and somehow have never been been an evaluator at Regional Day, which was held this past Saturday. Folks were needed to evaluate, so off I went to the middle school in Burlington where the event was held. It was so much fun!

Six of us were there to evaluate tabletops. I think I was the only one who hadn't been to evaluate at Regional Day previously; there were actually a few "pros" who come every year because they enjoy it so much. We broke into pairs and each pair of evaluators looked at roughly 7-8 projects. 

We had a sheet with criteria to measure on a point spread, and looked at things like use of space, design, whether they included the sources or not, neatness, etc. We looked at the age of the 4H member in order to assess their work and also read their written reflection on their project that include their goals and what they learned.

My co-evaluator Elaine and I spent about 20 minutes with each project. We'd give it the once-over, then work our way through the criteria with quite a bit of discussion. 

Projects ranged from model barn plans to robotics to items needed for hunting to facts about polo. Honestly, all the projects were really well done and informative. In fact, we gave every project we looked at a blue ribbon (although since they were scored with a point system, while they all fell into the blue ribbon category, some received more points than others). 

I enjoyed the little touches, like  a particularly beautiful color scheme or the model barn project that even had a little water in the tiny horse trough! I especially loved the fact that a couple of the horse businesses developed as tabletops (a summer camp and a rescue horse barn) even had references to checking out the business on social media. :)

Not that I needed a reminder about what a wonderful organization 4H is, but being part of the day underscored to me again how many opportunities 4H membership offers kids. It was really great to see the kids in action. Nothing like all that energy and enthusiasm to refresh my perspective on our monthly business meetings! 

Horse books

I'm currently reading The Horse Boy by Rupert Isaacson. It's the story of his and his wife's efforts to find healing for their young son Rowan, who has autism. Rupert stumbles upon the calming effect that horses have on Rowan, and this discovery along with a connection to spiritual healers takes the family to Outer Mongolia on a quest to heal Rowan. A trip born out of love and desperation. I'm about a third of the way through the book, and they have arrived in Mongolia and connected with a group of shamans. I was tempted to skip work today and just stay home and read.

Reading The Horse Boy has made me think back to all the books I've read and loved over the years that have horses as part of the story. As a kid I belonged to some sort of "horse book of the month" club, and that's where I got many of the books above, which I still haven't parted with. I remember being so excited when a new one would arrive. They're pretty dog eared; many of them I read them multiple times. Flipping through the Thelwell ponies set still makes me laugh. The illustrations are so awesome and the situations so recognizable to anyone who has spent time with horses.

Son of the Black Stallion is really in bad shape; it's the book in the upper right hand corner of the photo above with the missing spine binding. I don't remember the particulars of how I got it - if the school library was getting rid of old books or if I checked it out and, once in my clutches, never returned it. Looking at the dates on the checkout card, 1972 would have been 5th grade. My name is on the card, as are the names of lots of my friends. The names bring back fun memories, as do the books. We were all horse crazy.