CPHS FFA

Smiling at the camera, sophomores Audree Hearnsburger, Haley Evans, Emma McDougal, and junior Lucy Wigert pose for a picture after qualifying for state CDEs in their first year as a team. The girls competed on May 3 and placed 38th overall out of over 80 schools. “Making it to state was such a game changer,” sophomore Haley Evans said. “I’m so proud of us. I’ve never made it to state for anything, so I was really proud of both me and the girls. No matter how we did, I’m just super proud of us for making it to state.” Photo courtesy of CPHS FFA

With clipboard in hand, the girls go their separate ways as a bundle of nerves sets differently in each of their bodies. They finally take a deep breath. They know it’s time to make all the hours of work, practice and dedication pay off. 

In their first year as a team, horse judges consisting of sophomores Audree Hearnsburger, Emma McDougal, Haley Evans and junior Lucy Wigert competed at the state level at Texas Tech University on May 3. The team placed 38th overall out of over 80 schools. 

“Making it to state was such a game changer,” sophomore Haley Evans said. “I’m so proud of us. I’ve never made it to any type of state for anything, so I was really proud of both me and the girls. No matter how we did, I’m just super proud of us for making it to state.” 

Along with the horse judging team, the agricultural communications team competed at state as well, earning sixth overall in the state. The Ag Comm CDE includes creating a marketing campaign for the given agricultural topic at the event senior and FFA President Kacey Miller placed second overall in the state for her part in the event. This was her second time placing second individual in the contest. The other members of her team were sophomores Elizabeth Miller, Mia Moore and Drew Johnson. 

“This year, we signed up for the contest a week before it was held because we were short on team members,” Kacey said. “Even though it was rushed and we basically learned the material on the drive to Lubbock, our team did a great job of doing the best we could with what we knew about the contest, and I’m so proud of us.”

Horse Judging is another one of the Career Development Events for FFA. In this event, the girls must rank eight groups of horses without the help of each other based on certain aspects of the horses such as structure level and muscularity. Then, their rankings are compared to the actual judges’ rankings and the group with the closest rank to the real judges earns the highest placement. 

“You don’t really have to be a ‘horse girl’ to do horse judging,” Evans said. “Growing up, I rode horses, but I wasn’t actually a horse girl. You basically just follow the pattern and if any horse messes up, then they’re disqualified.”

Both McDougal and Wigert were a part of the team last year and the two recruited Evans and Hearnsburger from their equine class to compete with them. After a few competitions together, the team began to create a strong bond with each other. 

“State allowed us to become a lot closer as a team,” Hearnsburger said. “We got to go up with just four girls and two adults, and we stayed in a hotel. We went to the zoo, and we just had a really fun time together as a team.” 

With the girls not being able to see one another during the event, the team watches videos of different contests on an app where they can do their scoring and take notes. 

“We practiced pretty much every day and in the mornings,” Evans said. “Horse judging takes a lot of practice and time, but once you get the hang of it, it’s like you got this.”

Hearnsburger said the lessons the team learned from their trip to state will definitely help them in the coming years for the team as they continue to compete. 

“The hardest part is definitely that we can’t see each other during competition,” Hearnsburger said. “So, we learned a lot on how to work with the horses and look at them. We just learned a lot more about horses in general, which will definitely help us in the future as a team. We also just got to make new friends from around Texas [at state], so it was just a really great experience.”