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Regional Horse Bowl Competition!

By Emily B., U.P. Riders member

Horse Bowl! Horse Bowl! Horse Bowl! That’s what has been on the brains of members RiLee W., Clara C., Nick G., Cassidy C., Gentian W., Mollyann H., Emily B., Katy M., and Emilie S. for the last few months.
On Saturday, March 6^th, two of our U.P. Rider Horse Bowl teams got up bright an early and met up in the Ishpeming Park-N-Ride. After piling each team into a car we set off to Crystal Fall’s High School.

		When we arrived at our destination the energy was uncontrollable! To pass the time the teams took out their binders to do some last minute studying. There were not many teams competing in the Regional Competition so each of our teams only had one team to play against. This resulted in each team playing the same team in three different rounds. The first round started after about a half an hour. The senior group - Gentian W., Mollyann H., Emily B., Katy M., and Emilie S. were up first. They challenged the Iron County Horse Bowl team (this was Iron's first year ever to compete in Horse Bowl! Thank you very much to Iron County for choosing to play in the regular division with us instead of novice.) The Marquette senior team did an amazing job and beat the opposing team in all three rounds; coming out of the competition undefeated.
Next up was the junior team - RiLee W., Clara C., Nick G., and Cassidy C. They played Chippewa County, a team that they had played last year at the State Competition. After an intense game Chippewa won, but not by much. This gave the juniors an extra boost of competitiveness and they came back to win the last round in a swoop of glory. In the end, all of the teams did really well. The Senior team took 1st place, and the Junior team 2nd.

U.P. Riders Senior team dominated in individual scoring: Mollyann H., 1st Katy M., 2nd Gentian W., 3rd Emily B., 4th The Juniors did just as well in individual placing: RiLee W., 2nd Clara C., 4th Nick G., 6th Cassidy C., 8th Nice work U.P. Riders!

All the best wishes for Cassidy - thanks for trooping through horse bowl with a cast!

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U.P. Riders Horse Bowlers at Tractor Supply
& Volunteering at MCHC Tack Sale

By RiLee W., U.P. Riders Reporter

Visitors to Tractor Supply's grand opening could pick up a free Tractor Supply hat - so you might be seeing some around! There were two horses (demonstrating a type of fencing) and a goat that came by every once and a while outside Tractor Supply.

In order to raise funds for the two Horse Bowl teams that are heading to Lansing for the State Competition, the members of the teams were invited to serve refreshments and act as greeters for the grand opening of Tractor Supply in Negaunee. There are eight team members so we split up into four two-hour shifts with two people in each shift. Thanks to Tractor Supply, we were provided with drinks and donuts and hot dogs to sell. Thank you so much! In addition to all that, we were allowed to keep any of the profits that we made for Horse Bowl travel expenses. Cathy C. made a great poster board with a bunch of 4-H pictures and a donation can was set up next to it. Although we served a variety of foods, the doughnuts were by far the most popular. The shifts lasted from 8:00AM to 4:30PM. It was a huge success and by the time the day was done, we made $176! Thank You Tractor Supply for giving us this great opportunity.

I hope you all found something that you were looking for at the Marquette County Horse Club (MCHC) tack sale - or that you sold something you've been wanting to get rid of. It really is a great thing to have a used tack sale in our area. Thank you so much to the volunteers from our club for helping out! Return to Top of Page

Great Lakes Rodeo Royalty at the MCHC Tack Sale Missy C., Queen, (Far left), and Clara C., Princess, (Third from left), were promoting the rodeo and managing the bake sale.

We're State Horse Bowl Champions!

By RiLee W., U.P. Riders Reporter

For the second year in a row, Marquette County has placed high enough at the Regional Horse Bowl competition in Crystal Falls to be eligible for the state competition. The only difference was that this year we had two teams, a junior team and a senior team.

On April 16, at 8:00 am, all eight team members met at the Park-and-Ride in Harvey. While waiting for everyone to arrive, Emily B. brought out a handful of car window paints (green, white, and blue) and the decorating of our vehicles began. You might say we had just a little too much fun with those paints! A short while later, the caravan of highly decorated cars started moving, and we were on our way to Lansing.

We made two stops on our way down southward. One was a restaurant in Mackinaw city for lunch, the other was a huge western store just outside of Lansing. After checking in at our hotel and dividing up for dinner, we met at the pool for a mad game of Keep Away, some Marco Polo, and a game of Categories.

When we met for breakfast at 7:30 the next day, I regretted staying in the pool until ten the night before. The competition was held in Anthony Hall at Michigan State University. We registered our teams and waited for the rest of the teams from different counties to show and then we got started. There was an orientation, which started at nine o'clock and lasted for about a half hour, and then we started the games.

Our senior team had learned a while earlier that there was an experienced senior team from Leelanau County that had placed 2nd at state competition last year and went to the Quarter Horse Congress, which was one step from Nationals. That was who they were up against first! Meanwhile, our junior team waited impatiently for their turn to play.

The junior team was lined up and ready to head into their first game when we heard the news, the senior team had beat Leelanau County! Then we had to refocus for our game. After our game (we won also!) we met with the senior team to exchange notes on how our games had gone. By now, we were all ready for our next games, so just standing there and waiting was sort of hard. Game after game flew by, with Marquette teams winning each round. After a while, we were known as the unbeatables!

	It was a long day but by 3:00, we were done and Marquette hadn't lost a single game! We weren't surprised, but maybe a little shocked, when we totaled up the points and learned that both Marquette teams had won! Then we packed up, and went out to eat some dinner before the awards ceremony at 7:00pm.
First on the schedule for the awards ceremony was the individuals not on a team (we didn't have any contestants in this category), then came the individual placings for contestants on a team. Amazing as it seems, out of the 20 total junior individuals that competed, Marquette's junior team players received 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, as well as a 1st  in team placing!
	The seniors placed 2nd, 3rd, and 5th individually, and 1st in team placing overall, which allows them to compete in the National contest in November. After the ceremony, we all went back to the pool to celebrate. Check out the official 2010 Horse Bowl results and test yourself on the actual Junior questions and Senior questions our teams had to answer!

The next morning, we met for breakfast, before heading our separate ways. That was the end of our Horse Bowl adventure, that is until November when the senior team can go to Kentucky for the Eastern National contest!

November 5-7, 2010

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