2017 - Volume #41, Issue #1, Page #22
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Mini Horse Jumping Catching On
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“We went into this blind as this was a new event with rules just put into action,” Klingler admits. “But Prinze knew what he was doing. Mini horses, in general, love to jump. He’s very hyper and loves to run, and jumping makes him excited.”
Klingler had experience training her aunt’s mini horses for other events. When she heard about the event, she knew it was something she would enjoy. Her aunt and 4-H leader, Elaine Anderson, purchased Prinze for Klingler to show. Her win at the local event qualified her for the first 4-H state competition.
Her uncle, David Anderson, built jumps out of pvc pipes, and Klingler worked with Prinze 2 to 3 times a week in the spring. She upped the training to about 5 days a week during the summer to prepare for competition.
“I work with him a lot so I have control,” she says. By talking to Prinze and tugging the chain on his halter she learned to slow him down for the first round to make a clean run without hitting any jumps to qualify to compete in the second round, which is a timed run.
“Then, I just tell him to go,” Klingler says, and she has to run to keep up with him on the lead.
The event is as much fun for spectators as it is for participants, says Lew Trumble, Penn State Equine Extension Associate, who helped develop rules and guidelines for counties to build courses and train mini horses for jumping.
“It was something that was requested from a district in the state. The mini horse discipline has grown so much in the last 4 or 5 years. We wanted 4-Hers to have more options,” Trumble says. “I was not a mini horse person until working with 4-H. I have been impressed what they train their horses to do.”
Horses must be 40 in. or less; competitors range in age from 8 to 18. “It’s very popular with the youth and the spectators,” Trumble says. “For our junior show, it was the last class of the horse show, and people stayed around to watch.”
At 15, sophomore Klingler looks forward to competing 3 more years in the new 4-H program. She was proud how well Prinze did against older horses at the state level and hopes to improve her 10th place finish next year.
“I recommend it to anyone,” Klingler says. “It’s so much fun.”
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Lew Trumble, Penn State Extension, 1099 Morgan Village Rd., Suite A, Meadville, Penn. 16335 (ph 814 547-9285; lpt3@psu.edu).
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