Family stays active at Stark and Billings County 4-H horse show

At the crack of dawn, the Forsness' toted their horses to Dickinson for the 8 a.m. Roughriders 4-H Horse Show.

The Dickinson State University Outdoor Arena was still adorned with advertisers from the PRCA rodeo held last weekend. As the arena was split, to allow the older participants to be judged separately from the cloverbuds, the 4-Hers prepared their horses for the show. For the Forsness', showing in 4-H is an annual event.

Nikki Forsness-mother to Lacey, 15, and Bowen, 11-held the show together while wearing a maroon T-shirt that read, "eat, sleep, 4-H, repeat." She assisted a judge who arrived from Crosby, helped set up the obstacles for the events and-possibly the most challenging task-kept the kids in line.

Forsness admired her father's ranch lifestyle and while she herself was not a 4-Her, she believes in the lessons that it can teach her children.

"I like the values it instills, the work ethic," she said. "I like living out in the country."

As Forsness helps the cloverbuds-4-Hers ages eight and under-as well as younger kids on the south end of the arena, her daughter competes on the north end.

Lacey brought her two quarter horses, Pickles and Pep, to compete on Tuesday.

"They're both my rodeo horses but I'll use them for 4-H obviously, so we'll see how it goes," she said. "I do the slow events too. It's probably going to be a mess."

Lacey prefers to goat tie and is qualified for the National High School Finals Rodeo for the event after finishing third in the state.

"I just like the adrenaline rush, and both my horse and I are athletic so it's easy," she said.

Bowen brought Core, a gigantic grey quarter horse, who Nikki calls "a big gentle giant who would prefer to sleep."

As she encourages her children and others to be active in 4-H, she also admires what the kids can do with the horses.

"A lot of these kids bring their rodeo or ranch horses to compete in the slow stuff," she said. "To see what they can do with the horse that was not trained to do the slow stuff, is pretty neat."

As the show continued on Tuesday, the temperature reached the high 70s, with no wind or shade for relief. The day dragged on for nearly 12-hours and the heat got to everyone.

Nikki joked with other volunteers about her raccoon eyes, as she was wearing sunglasses all day and advised Bowen to put on sunscreen since his cheeks turned bright red.

While horses are a main component of the family's life, they also bring in other projects during the three-day 4-H run.

"We usually bring in a whole pickup load of stuff," Nikki Forsness said. "This year is a little slower, we didn't have the time to do as many."

The family shows rabbits and used to show chickens until there were show restrictions and prices for testing their fowls decreased their interest in showing. Nikki, who loving called them "disgusting and dirty," said that she really did enjoy the birds.

In the end, they sold their chickens and built an extra tack barn for their horses.

"The kids are happier having more space and not having to show the birds," Forsness said.

With Tuesday ending the horse aspect of their 4-H days, the family has a small break on Wednesday before being back at it again with the other livestock on Thursday.

"It's nice to have that Wednesday because Tuesday is a very very long day. It's usually a 100 degrees and there's just so many kids that, we're there for at least a solid 12 hours," she said. "It's good times."