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Harter wears more than just one hat
GREENVILLE- Sixteen year old GraceLynn Harter may very well be the
busiest 4-H person on the fairgrounds this year. A member of the Silver
Hoofs 4-H horse club, Harter showed in multiple events at the 2020 fair
winning several ribbons over the course of the shortened fair with two
different horses.
Gunsmoke (aka Mokey), is a full blooded Arabian. She does contesting,
saddle seat, hunt seat and western ranch with him.
“Mokey is a fast horse,” said Harter. “This horse has been roped off of
so he had to be rodeo fast. So that is why he has so much speed.”
The other horse she shows is a Fjord, Lilah, a very expensive breed of
horse, a Norwegian draft horse.
Harter shows Lilah in shows that doesn’t require speed.
“She is a pulling horse so I use her in the driving competition,”
Harter pointed out. “Mokey is a light horse while Lilah is a heavy
horse.”
By the end of the fair, Harter will compete in 15-20 different shows
and will finish usually no worse the sixth, with multiple top three
finishes.
If showing two different horses in all the events, Harter also raised
her own vegetables to sell. This year, she had three different basket
sizes at three different prices.
All baskets had an array of different types of produce but all of the
baskets had flowers in them that were grown by her also.
If that isn’t enough. Harter also serves on the junior fairboard.
On top of all this, she works at a chicken farm stacking eggs for extra
money in Portland Indiana.
“My life can get crazy at times,” admitted Harter. “On Sunday, I will
go through everything for my week and I’ll figure it out from there. On
Monday, I will have four boxes of produce I have to get out and Monday
night, I’ll come out and work with the horses. Then somewhere in there
will be the junior fairboard meetings and my days to work. I eat when I
can but I really don’t sleep too much. There’s not a lot of time for
sleep especially when I have to squeeze in my school work.”
Harter gives a lot of credit for her success with the horses to Patrick
and Mary Neill, her 4-H advisors.
“Patrick and Mary are two of the greatest people I know,” said Harter.
“Both my horses belong to her, I’m just leasing them. None of my former
advisors even compare to Mary.”
After high school, Harter wants to study criminal justice and would
like to be in the secret service.
“If I can’t get into the secret service, I’d like to be in a mounted
patrol,” Harter said. “There’s a collage in Missouri that has a great
criminal justice program that I really like. This collage is second in
the country for criminal justice degrees.”
“Once I leave here, I expect to have good leader and people skills
through 4-H and this will help me in the future,” said
Harter.
Harter, a sophomore, is home schooled with Ohio Virtual Academy.
Her parents are Krista and Jeremy Francis ad Cade and Megan Harter.
“I get all the support in the world from my parents and step parents,”
Harter said. “I couldn’t do it without them.”
One things for certain, To be only 16, Harter wears more hats than most
people wear in a lifetime
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