Horse 4-H Project Area

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The 4-H Horse project area consists of three project manuals. Each manual covers three years of activities.

Six 4-H Horse Project Manuals from Shop4H

Giddy Up and Go (Horse 1) covers horse behavior, terms, breed identification, body parts, selection, grooming, saddling and bridling, and safety and equipment.
In Head, Heart and Hooves (Horse 2), you learn more about acquiring and raising a horse, nutrition and care, teeth and bones, and judging, including giving oral reasons.
Stable Relationships (Horse 3) has you exploring horse reproduction, diseases and health care, pasture management, providing appropriate shelter and building a financial plan.
In Riding the Range (Horse 4), you’ll learn nine basic riding skills and ten horsemanship skills, training techniques, trail riding and selection, and use of tack.
Jumping to New Heights (Horse 5) has you learning more advanced riding skills, the Quarter System, horse showmanship, ethics and leadership.

If a member completes the 15 years of project manuals, they can work with their county Extension professionals to determine their learning opportunities for their remaining 4-H years.

Scoresheets

Each year, 4-H members should complete 7 activities in the project manual as well as the planning pages at the beginning of the manual.

There are not separate documents with the scoresheets for horse project series. Scoresheets can be located inside the Record Guides on page 2.

Record Guides

Youth who has selected a Horse 4-H project typically are raising an animal as part of their project work. A project record guide is part of the animal science project experience.

Paper Record Guides

Horse Record Guide

Electronic Record Guides

Complete electronic record guides in 4-H ZSuite

Horse-less Horse Project

If you enroll in this project area without an animal, check with your local Extension professional for approval and guidelines.

Exhibit Ideas

Many youth in this project area will exhibit an animal at a livestock show.
Poster, Story, and/or Model on one of the following topics:

Horse 1 - horse behavior, terms, breed identification, body parts, selection, grooming, saddling and bridling, and safety and equipment.
Horse 2 - acquiring and raising a horse, nutrition and care, teeth and bones, and judging, including giving oral reasons.
Horse 3 - horse reproduction, diseases and health care, pasture management, providing appropriate shelter and building a financial plan.
Horse 4 - basic riding skills and ten horsemanship skills, training techniques, trail riding and selection, and use of tack.
Horse 5 - more advanced riding skills, the Quarter System, horse showmanship, ethics and leadership.

Examples of Blue Ribbon Exhibits

How Do I Sign Up?

Screenshot of 4-H ZSuite enrollment page to select project

The first step is to create an enrollment in our ZSuite website.

Enroll in 4-H ZSuite

When you get to the CLUBS tab of the enrollment, you will want to ADD PROJECT.

For Horse, you should search for:

RECORD GUIDE - HORSE / YEAR 1 - GIDDY UP AND GO

Project Videos

Coming soon!

Related Events & Camps

No events available at this time.

Animal Health & Quality Assurance (AH&QA)

Youth exhibitors required to complete the online quality assurance training must do so starting April 1st and no later than June 30th in order to exhibit at any fair, festival or show taking place the remainder of that calendar year in West Virginia.