4-H Alabama State Horse Show

We are very fortunate in DeKalb County and in Rainsville that this year the Extension Service of Alabama selected the Northeast Agribusiness Center to host its annual statewide horse show which in the past has always been held in Montgomery. The event is this weekend July 6-9. This is a big event and very good news for our area.

The people who will be competing and attending are visitors to our area and since it is a four day event it will serve as very large tourism event for our area. This means a lot of new visitor’s spending money for lodging, food, gas, shopping and area attractions.

This is an excerpt from Courtney Holland from the Alabama Extension; Auburn University. Courtney is the Equine Extension Specialist.

This year’s Alabama 4-H State Horse Show will be hosted at the Northeast Agribusiness Center, Rainsville Alabama. All events are open to the public.

On average, 160 4-Hers participate at the show and with this year’s show being at a new venue, we expect the amount of 4-H Horse Clubs and their members to increase in 2017.

The great thing is, participants do not need to own a horse to be part of the 4-H Horse Show.

There are multiple educational classes in which the kids may participate in without having to own a horse.

There are 100 classes total being offered at this year’s show, which include several educational contests (hippology, horse judging, public speaking, individual presentation, team presentation, photography contests, art, creative writing, model horse, and posters) in addition to the performance horse divisions (western, ranch/roping, hunt seat/dressage, gaited/saddle horse, speed, and drill team competition).

Youth 14 & up may qualify to compete at the 4-H Southern Regional Horse Show in educational contests or performance horse classes. From there, they have a chance to be invited to compete at the 4-H Eastern Nationals Horse Round-Up.

The goal of the 4-H Horse Program committee is to keep this event affordable in an effort to give our youth a chance to participate while still offering awards and scholarships for their efforts. The registration fee is free for educational contests in order to give all 4-Hers an opportunity to participate. If a participant wants to show a horse, but does not own one, there are many lease options available at various training stables all throughout our state.

There is a registration fee of $20 per performance horse class, which is inexpensive compared to large association horse show fees. Since all of our entry fees go to facility rental and hiring judges, sponsorships and fundraisers are needed to support scholarships, awards, and educational contest materials.

Here is a brief schedule: All events are open to the public. These are some key times but events are being held all day long, each day. You may attend at anytime from 8 a.m. through the day and evening.

• Thursday, July 6th – 6PM is the drill team demonstration
• Friday, July 7th – hunt seat and jumping competition begins at 3 PM
• Kids’ art projects are on display on this day as well beginning at 3 PM
• Saturday, July 8th – Western, English, and Gaited horse events are all day (8AM – 6 PM)
• Sunday, July 9th – Ranch and speed events 8 AM – 3 PM

For more information you can contact the Northeast Agribusiness Center at, 256-638-1650 or email at MikeSweat@nealagribusinesscenter.com