4-H members challenged in class

The Whiskey Trail Ranch out of Hot Springs hosted a working ranch class for 4-H students last weekend. Ranch managers Scott and Tammy McAllister judged the four girls from Plains and Trout Creek on Sunday. "We had six signed up but two canceled," said Wendy Carr with MSU Extension.

Carr is co-superintendent with Shannon Chojnacky for 4-H horse projects. Everyone helped with gathering cows and moving them from pen to pen for the events. "It was good for the girls to help sort cows a bit before we started their classes," Chojnacky said.

The girls attending were Madi Chojnacky, Brooklynn Crain, and MacKenzie and Miranda Tulloch. They chose the working ranch class to learn basic cattle management. Their first event was a pattern that involved moving a cow into a box and holding it there for 45 seconds. Next they had to move the cow along the fence to a barrel. They were judged on each element of the pattern and the overall score.

The second lesson was in roping. The girls were given the basics on roping head and heels by Scott McAllister. They practiced on the ground with saw horses. Then they practiced roping a dummy calf from their horses. They could earn three points total for the position of the rope, the catch or roping the head and for rebuilding the rope. This was challenging for them. "We are going to have them do the heeling portion from the ground." Tammy McAllister said.

The third event was sorting. This involved riding into a pin and sorting out one cow at a time. They had three minutes to sort and move two cows into another pin. The cows had numbers tagged to their ears. This was how the girls found the cows they had to cut from a large group of cows. They received one point each if they sorted them out within the three minute time.

"I can rope a moving cow better. And I managed to rope the heel off my horse," Crain said.

Madi and Miranda received grand champion ribbons, and MacKenzie and Brooklynn received the reserve grand champion ribbons. Madi and MacKenzie are senior members in 4-H (14 and older). Miranda and Brooklynn are juniors. After the classes were finished, they all went for a ride on the ranch.