Quarantine hasn’t stopped the South Carolina 4-H Horse Program. The program has been very busy hosting fourteen virtual contest/activities for youth and promoting even more opportunities for youth to stay active with their horse project while at home. Online contests have included virtual horse judging, online video contest, virtual state horse show, online hippology contest, and online horse bowl contest. An existing online educational class offered by the program, called Horse Institute, was extended, which gave members an opportunity to gain additional knowledge. The videos from our online video contest received a combined total of over 10,000 views. Four workshops on how the virtual hippology and horse bowl contests would work were held, allowing youth and volunteers to orient themselves and gain comfort with the new online contest platform. Two sessions of online horse camp invited youth within and outside the program to join in for educational lessons, homework assignments, fun activities, crafts, and optional riding assignments. Finally, social media spirit weeks and a summer project t-shirt were offered to help keep youth and volunteer spirits lifted. About 300 youth have participated in these collective virtual programs for 4-H.
The South Carolina 4-H Horse Program has no plans of slowing down as we continue to move forward during these uncertain times. The program will continue to offer more online trainings and contests this fall. For more information about the horse program and it’s projects please visit: https://www.clemson.edu/extension/4h/programs/ag-animals/horse/index.html
