From My Side of the Fence Fall 2025

4-H, A Journey with a Little Surprise

By Dennis Kenning

4-H is a great program for youth teaching them responsibility, sportsmanship, hard work, dedication, and team work. I guess I owe a lot to 4-H, as it gave me a start in agriculture which lead me to FFA while in high school, and then finally to become an FFA Advisor.
This year was my granddaughter’s first year in 4-H and she selected projects for the fair with a Cat, Poultry, and Horse. Thank goodness she has an interest in horses. Nothing is better than grandkids and horses in my world. And that’s the cool part about 4-H, there is so many project areas, for kids. It truly has something for everyone. Now my granddaughter has been riding a horse since she was 5 and could actually ride on her own at age 6. If you don’t know in order to ride a 4-H horse at the county fair you must provide a demonstration, pass a written exam, and show you’re capable of riding. That’s a lot when you’re 9 years old, so this horse project has kind of been a journey for her.
So my granddaughter has been riding a paint mare for the past two years. So I’m thinking this won’t be a big deal. Her first ride this spring was a big deal when that paint mare bucked the granddaughter off. Well that’s kind of my fault you see the horse sits all winter and I fed the animal well to keep weight on the horse. The horse needed to be warmed up and had a little too much energy. Anyway, the granddaughter cried and I cried with her, and we decided to look for another horse. After days of searching, I found a roan mare from a Kansas Rescue Center. You buy these horses by video over Facebook, so you don’t get to see these horses ahead of time. We got the mare home and found out the mare could use some groceries on her, but she was not skin and bones.
My granddaughter really took to the mare and she got along great with this horse. She would ride this horse everyday if I would let her. So I had our Vet give all the necessary vaccinations and had the horse’s dental work done. I’m trying to shovel the feed to this mare and it seems like she is losing weight. Eight days later I find after-birth next to the gate. I immediately think the worst, do we have a down mare or a dead foal. So going to look for the mare, I find this mare in the middle of the pasture, when out of nowhere pops–up this new born foal. The foal has some wobbly legs but looks just fine for 12 hours old. What a “Surprise”. We had no idea that she was that far along, what a blessing from above.
So now we are all excited about the new addition, but the reality sets in that you can’t take this mare and foal to the fair. So now granddaughter starts working with the first horse that bucked her off. She takes it slow and I make sure there is no excess energy. She uses the paint horse at the fair and does really well, we were all so proud of her. Then another surprise was my granddaughter’s reaction after the 4-H Horse Show, because she is upset that this journey has ended for the year. The granddaughter is going to miss her 4-H Horse coaches that helped her each night of practice. Granddaughter will miss our trips to town to use the arena, which ended up with stops on the way home for a burger, pop, ice cream or all of the above. I’m going to miss that time I had with my granddaughter. You see, my granddaughter had been on this difficult journey, from getting bucked off, taking exams, riding a lot and time together with others. And I was the lucky one because I took this journey with her and enjoyed every minute. You see 4-H has given us this journey together. That may be the best part of 4-H, the time you spend with others and family.
Finally, what about that rescue mare and foal. The mare has been putting on some good weight and the colt’s body is filling out and he is growing like a weed. With cooler weather its fun to watch the colt gallop, jump, buck, run, and be playful. It takes me back in time, some 50 plus years ago when my Dad raised foals on our farm. The biggest issue is what do we name this new addition? The grandson calls him Oscar because when you’re six you name all your pets Oscar. The Granddaughter calls him Harry because of his very thick hair coat. For me, I just call the foal the way I see it. It’s one of those blessing and a surprise from the Lord, so I call the foal “Surprise”.

Around the Farm
What a difference one year makes in the way of precipitation. A year ago in July we were putting up hay as fast as possible, to avoid grass shrinking. This summer has been the challenge of putting up hay between rains, but hey I’m not complaining at all. If everything holds up the harvest should be good. You never count your chickens before they hatch. With all the rainfall we decided to spray our grain corn with a fungicide and I’m really glad we did so. Our silage corn had a lot of rust on it which covered the machinery. This fall we have been putting up the last of the hay and chopping silage for feed. This may be the most silage we have had in quite some time. Cattle have been doing well with plenty of grass in the pastures. This summer our battle continues with fly control and some pinkeye problems. Using GPS tags in our bulls has worked pretty well. I hope to discuss the cattle GPS in my future column. Thanks to the Lord for the rainfall. I hope everyone has a bountiful and most of all, have a safe harvest.