(WNY News Now) Charlotte Couchman wins first place in the Public Speaking division at the 2024 Eastern National 4-H Horse Roundup.
The Chautauqua County 4-H Program at Cornell Cooperative Extension is pleased to report that 4-H member Charlotte Couchman has won the 2024 Eastern National 4-H Horse Roundup.
The Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center in Louisville, Kentucky hosted the 2024 Eastern National Horse Roundup on November 4, 2024. Twenty states participated in the competition, including sixteen 4-H members from New York State.
Young people participated in a range of events, such as Horse Bowl, Hippology (the study of horses), Horse Judging, and Communications. Through excursions of Churchill Downs, Spycoast Farm, and the Kentucky Horse Park, they also had the chance to learn about Kentucky’s equine culture.
Charlotte Couchman gave a speech titled “Do You Have a License For That?” in the Communications competition’s Public Speaking section. In her ten-minute address, she talked on striking a balance when it comes to owning, riding, and working horses.
It’s not an easy journey to the Nationals. To advance to the National competition, Couchman had to compete and earn a spot at the County, Regional, and State contests.
Couchman has previously won a national championship. At the 2023 Nationals, she won the Communications competition’s Individual Presentation section with her PowerPoint presentation on equestrian Protozoal Myeloencephalitis, or EPM as it is more often called in the equestrian industry. This sickness, which is brought on by a parasite that is carried through opossum excrement, affects the brain and spinal cord of horses.
Couchman, along with her horses Ren and Goose, participates actively in the 4-H Horse Project and has been a member of the Chautauqua County Junior Trail Riders 4-H Club for ten years. She enjoys working them at liberty or simply spending time with them, and she competes with them in dressage and hunt seat. Outside of 4-H, she participates in the Dressage4Kids program and competes in Horse Bowl and Hippology. She is a senior at Cassadaga Valley and intends to pursue a career in medicine after graduation.
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Chautauqua County (CCE-Chautauqua) offers a variety of programs, including the Chautauqua County 4-H Program. Operating under an administration and organizational structure authorized by Cornell University as an agent for the State of New York, CCE-Chautauqua is a subordinate government entity with an educational mission.
