4-H’ers compete well at state show
By Sam Waller
Shackelford County 4-H members kept busy in July, placing in the state horse show, shooting sports games, and district record book contest.
At the state horse show, held Saturday-Friday, July 22-28 at Bryan, four 4-Hers competed in multiple events.
Faith Fry was sixth overall in yearling futurity. She was also fourth in lunge line, sixth in showmanship, and seventh in trail.
Gage Burton was first in stock horse trail and second in cow boxing. That was followed by a sixth place in stock horse showmanship, eighth in both reining and stock horse pleasure, and ninth in stock horse horsemanship. He was also a finalist in ranch roping and breakaway roping.
Truitt Burton placed seventh in stock horse showmanship and was a finalist in stock horse trail, cow boxing, reining, stock horse pleasure, stock horse horsemanship, ranch roping, and breakaway roping.
Cameron Burton competed in stock horse trail, cow boxing, stock horse horsemanship, reining, stock horse pleasure, and stock horse showmanship.
Judging for the District 7 record book contest was held Tuesday, July 18.
Reese Nitschke took first place in Junior Goat with Rainy Nitschke first in Junior Horse. Artie Bell was third in Junior Beef.
Other Shackelford County 4-Hers who completed record books this year but did not enter them in the contest were Riley Reames, Gage Burton, Truitt Burton, Ben Russell, and Leddie Leech.
At the shooting sports games, held the week of July 9-14 at Baird, Carly Kreitler placed fifth in Junior Air Pistol Silhouettes and seventh in Junior Air Pistol.
Summer STEAM
Shackelford County’s Summer STEAM program wraps up with two more sessions. Thursday, Aug. 3 (today) will be an art day led by Heather Nitschke. The final session on Thursday, Aug. 10 will be a pool party hosted by Tamara Trail.
After taking a break during the first week of July, the program resumed with technology and engineering sessions led by Matt Howard and Eric Johnson. Johnson gave a demonstration on radio.
“The kids built a radio antenna and were able to make contact with someone in Minnesota,” Shackelford County extension agent Kelsey Bell said. “That was cool.”
August Events
Shackelford County 4-H has just two more items on the calendar for August.
On Monday, Aug. 14, incoming officers will have a leadership lab.
“That was part of the intent behind electing officers in May,” Bell said. “We’re going to go to commissioners court and learn parliamentary procedure. We’ll do leadership activities in the afternoon and discuss community service projects for the year. Hopefully, that’ll help the kids take more ownership over their projects.”
On Sunday, Aug. 20, the club will hold its awards banquet at the Whitney Theatre.
The new 4-H year starts Sept. 1.
