COVID-19 has halted a lot of youth activities, but Becker’s 4-H club decided it was time to take matters into their own hands. After a summer full of cancelled shows and fairs, the young cowboys and cowgirls were looking for an outlet to show off their skills. So, Sarah Kolbinger, a nurse and mother to two, decided that she would host her own show, right in her own backyard, and give the kids an opportunity to display the skills they had worked all summer to improve.

Summer Events Shut Down

Every year, 4-H kids look forward to horse shows and county fairs. The shows allow the kids to show off their skills with their animals, or even to show off the animals themselves. But this year, every single event the Becker 4-H club normally looks forward to attending was cancelled. So the 4-H club organized its own show, the 2020 Firefly Acres Pandemic Invitational.

Hosting the Event

Kolbinger plays a big role in the 4-H club. She and her husband, Jason Kolbinger, have a hobby farm, Firefly Acres, filled with dogs, cats, chickens, ducks, pigs, and, of course, horses. They take care of not only their own horses, but horses for the 4-H kids who otherwise would have no place to keep the animals. Sarah Kolbinger has been an animal lover all her life, and she loves being able to share that passion with her kids, and everyone else’s kids too, for that matter.

After seeing the disappointment the kids felt after not being able to compete as they normally do, Kolbinger decided to organize her own show, where she would serve as the judge herself. She said it actually worked out to be a great opportunity for the kids who had never competed in shows. It showed them how a show would go, without any pressure about winning or losing. And a couple of the kids who were too young to compete in normal shows had the opportunity to try it out, such as Eivan Aucipiña, a cowboy who is four years old. He took his miniature horse through the obstacle course with help from his dad, Angel Aucipiña.  The club even ordered ribbons to hand out to the kiddos.

The Obstacle Course

Cowboys and cowgirls were asked to take miniature horses through an obstacle course. The horses were made to walk over a wobbly board; stand under an umbrella; walk backwards down a path; jump onto a platform; walk through a curtain of tinsel; endure a flag waved in their face; and, finally, stand inside a hula-hoop patiently as the kids dropped the reins and walked in a circle around the animal. The animals were well tamed by the 4-H kids, and everyone did a wonderful job on the course.