She Will Return In 2022 To Defend Her Titles
By Brandy Lewis
Greenville- Class after class the large crowd in the 4-H horse grandstands heard one name over and over again, Kara Strait. In the four biggest classes Friday; Poles, Stakes, Keyhole and Barrels she placed a impressive first place and won the Championship in all of them riding her 10 year old Palomino, Sandy. The 18 year old competed in the 16-18 year old classes. The way her birthday falls, she will have one more year in 4-H to defend her titles. She also participated in ground roping, speed and control, ranch riding, ranch versatility team tournament and placed first in ranch horse pleasure on Saturday. Sunday, at the open horse show, she participated in youth barrels and ran her best time ever. She did the barrels in a whopping time of 16.6 seconds on her horse Sandy. She also did open poles but didn’t place. Not only did she ride her Palomino these three days but in each class she also rode her horse Sinica, a beautiful black mare that is 22 years old.
A five year member of Buckeye Buckaroos, she has only been riding horses for a short five years. Her parents, Dawn and Doug Strait from Greenville had never been in 4-H or ridden a horse before.
The Troy Christian senior boards her horses at a stable in Versailles and rides every day. Her advice to younger 4-H members who want to contest is, “find a good trainer and practice a lot. More slow work definitely helps. I know it’s fun to go fast but your horse isn’t going to learn a lot of stuff if you go fast all the time. Slow work around the barrels so they learn to turn better and stuff like that definitely helps.”
What is this champion’s plans for her last year in 4-H?
“I have a three year old horse, Junior, that I got in November, said Strait “I’ve been training him and started him myself so I hope he will be up and running next year and will be ready for fair.” She goes on, “I’m going to be done with Sinica and she is retiring after this fair. I will still have Sandy and now Junior.”
At ride nights, Strait helps younger riders when they need it, but says, “A lot of kids have other people helping them. It’s really important to have your own trainer.”
Strait is a shy girl and when asked about club and county involvement like Jr. Fair Board she said, “Probably not, I’ve never liked talking in front of people or anything like that. I’m not a very sociable person.”
Strait may not consider herself a social person but on Wednesday, she was out with many other riders for horse fun show. These classes often had pairs of horses working together. In the first class, two riders hold a piece of paper streamer and must ride in unison to make sure the paper ribbon does not break. This class was so tight, the announcer had the kids place the ribbon in their mouths while cantering around the arena. Strait had a ball as she continued throughout the other fun classes.
Her favorite thing to do at fair is riding around with friends, showing and getting food.
Strait was quite impressive to watch all week on Sinica and Sandy. They might not have won every class, but they came close. Keep your eyes open as she returns for her final year with Sandy and Junior to see if she can hold on to her titles and maybe win a few more!
Photos: (Above) Strait takes Sandy through the barrels to win the championship. Below: Strait races Sinica back to the finish line. CNO Photos by Brandy Lewis
