Submitted Photo Members of the Pierce County 4-H Hippology Team pose with their coach, Barb Rice, center, at the Western National Roundup. From left are Joey Wolf, Rugby; Mika Guty, York; Rice, Maddock; Tianna Dwyer, Spearfish, S.D.; and Kendra Leier, Rugby.

A team of young local horse enthusiasts brought home top national honors from the 4-H Western National Roundup in Denver, Colo.

The winning team consisted of Rugby High School students Kendra Leier and Joey Wolf, along with Mika Guty of Benson County and Tianna Dwyer, a student at Black Hills State College in Spearfish, S.D.

The roundup took place Jan. 5-9. The Pierce County team represented North Dakota in hippology, or the study of the horse. The team took first place overall, beating the scores of teams from several other states.

Contestants scored points in four phases in the competition: examination, the station phase, judging and a team problem.

The team won the overall high score for the national competition, with first-place point totals in the examination and stations phases. The team scored in fifth place for horse judging and sixth place for the team problem phase. Leier scored the highest number of points of any individual competing. Guty placed second overall for individuals, while Dwyer placed fourth. Dwyer placed first among individuals for the examination and stations phases, while Leier placed second in the individual stations phase, second in the judging phase and fourth in the examination phase. Guty placed third among individuals in the stations phase and fifth in the examination phase.

The examination phase consists of a written test with questions on a slide show. In the stations phase, teams rotate to different testing areas to solve hands-on problems. Then, the teams use their knowledge to judge live horses before each team is assigned a problem to solve together with their teammates.

The Pierce County area team placed first overall in the state competition held in April before representing North Dakota at nationals.

Coach Barb Rice, who works as a veterinarian in Benson County, said she was proud of the local team. Rice said she has coached hippology teams for 13 years and has gone to nationals with 4-H horse judging teams as well.

Rice said the Pierce and Benson County team was the second she had coached to a national championship. In 2019, Rice’s team from Benson County took the national title at the Western Round-Up. Team members Marit Wang and Victoria Christenson took first and second place in high individual scores.

“Hippology season is usually January through April,” Rice said. “But this particular year, we had our state contest in June, so we met every week from January through June. Then, they won the state contest.”

Rice said the team members held fundraisers in the summer for their trip to nationals. In the fall, they started meeting and studying for nationals.

“So, they’ve put a lot of time, a lot of study hours into it,” Rice said. “And they’re all really busy girls, because they’re all involved in other things and yet, they were willing to put in the time to study, so they should be commended for that, for sure.”

After the weekly study sessions, which Rice said included college-level materials on horse science, the team prepared to leave North Dakota for Denver, encountering problems along the way.

‘Wild trip’

“I’ve been trying to recover from the trip. It was a really wild trip,” Rice said. Coaches and three team members coped with three canceled flights.

“We ended up driving at the last minute when our last flight was canceled. We started at eight at night and stopped at one in the morning, then we got up and drove all day,” Rice said.

Because of an interstate closure, the drivers had to detour east to Nebraska before crossing into Colorado, Rice added.

“We all got there, though and we were thankful for that,” team member Leier said.

Once the team members met up at nationals, they went through the rigors of the hippology contest.

“It was a team effort, very much so,” Leier said of the competition. “Our coach is amazing. She helps us a lot and she teaches us things that you wouldn’t even think you’d have to learn for this competition. And also, teammates are amazing. We always support each other and it’s really fun.”

Leier and Rice said the team did their best, and began to see signs they had done well as judges announced awards the next morning.

Rice said judges announced “all these different divisions and said, someone from North Dakota placed in tests or stations or whatever. So, if you have three kids who do well in tests and three kids who do well in stations and your team does well in horse judging, as the process is going on, you get the idea that they’re going to do pretty darn good.”

Leier said, “Before the awards even started, we couldn’t eat. We were stressed about it. But, we felt good about getting the award. Once our individual awards went out, I looked at Mika and said, ‘We did it. There’s no way we didn’t.’ But it’s really like an adrenaline rush. It felt amazing that it all paid off at the end.”

Competition sparks interest

Dwyer said in a text message that she was “honestly amazed at what our team managed to do. I knew we had all studied for it but it was truly a blessing that we were able to win.” The college freshman said she hoped to continue her studies to become a chiropractor “for both equine and people.”

“It’s amazing,” Wolf said of her team’s win. “After being in hippology for about seven years, finishing on top is the best feeling.”

Wolf and her teammates said although they would not be allowed to compete again in hippology for 4-H due to rules limiting teams to one appearance at nationals, they would still stay involved with horses. “I’m thinking (of studying) a related field to veterinary science as I find it very interesting,” Wolf said.

Leier said the experience also interested her in working with horses. “I definitely do want to do something with the equine industry, veterinary science or vet tech or chiropractic and massage because I learned so much that I don’t want to just let it go to waste,” Leier said.

All team members own horses. Leier said she owned two, named Cash and Bex. The horses live on Leier’s family ranch.

Leier said she stays involved with ranching in the summer, and participates in barrel racing with the Roughrider Rodeo Circuit in North Dakota. Leier and Wolf also play volleyball for the Rugby High School Panthers. Wolf also plays basketball for the Panthers.

Rice said she enjoyed coaching the hippology team. “Even if they wouldn’t have won, I’d have been very proud of them because they learned a lot of hard stuff and they took their time out from their busy schedules and they had good attitudes. They’re definitely hard workers,” she said.

“I think it’s hard to win a national contest and I always think everything has to kind of come together,” Rice added. “They have to have a good day of judging and other things have to go well.”

Rice said Wolf had planned to come on a late flight to Denver. Her plans worked out, unlike those of her teammates. “If her flight would’ve been canceled, we wouldn’t have had a fourth person and that would’ve hurt us a lot. So, we prayed about that,” Rice said. “There were just so many times that we just had to give it to the Lord and pray. So, I told the girls it was a gift from God. Thank God for what happened.”

The team gave thanks to sponsors who helped fund their trip to nationals. Sponsors were: The North Dakota 4-H Foundation; Lynn and Robin Arnold; Gavin and Helen Foss; Harvey Eagles; Ben and Mandy Kuhnhenn; Wold Engineering; J & J Rentals; John Hellandsaas; First International Bank and Trust; Benson County Hippology; 4-H Leaders Council; Susie Breen; Rugby Jaycees; Allan Krech; A & C Tires; Northern Plains Electric; Amber Waves Consulting; Benson County Rodeo Club; NDTC Dollars in Motion; The Arthur Companies, Inc.; Daryl Kuhnhenn Memorial Ride; Dick’s Electric; Foss Crop Insurance; Maddock Renaissance Faire; Sandy Scherr; Double J Farms and A1 Hay Binding.