Aggies host popular stock horse show; team earned third of six colleges

Aggies host popular stock horse show; team earned third of six colleges

Makayla Forsythe, NCTA Ranch Horse team member and Livestock Teaching Center facilities student manager, works out with, Gill, at the NCTA indoor arena. (NCTA Photo by Craig Chandler / University Communication.)
Makayla Forsythe, NCTA Ranch Horse team member and Livestock Teaching Center facilities student manager, works out with, Gill, at the NCTA indoor arena. (NCTA Photo by Craig Chandler / University Communication.)

April 12, 2017

By Mary Crawford, NCTA News

McCook, Neb. – There’s cow sense and then there’s horse sense. Combine the two with skilled riders and you have a grand show at the arena.

A packed weekend of ranch horse work for students and avid stock handlers drew more than 80 entries and six colleges to the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture’s Ranch Horse Team “Punchy in Pink” show in McCook.

The host Aggies traveled from their home campus in Curtis, Nebraska, to the nearby Red Willow County Fairgrounds at McCook where excellent facilities, horse barns and stalls, and multiple arenas can house and host the stock horse teams and public participants from surrounding states, said Joanna Hergenreder, NCTA associate professor of animal science and Ranch Horse Team coach.

“We had an amazing clinic and two-day show this year, where our NCTA students did almost all of the advance planning, marketing, labor and still found time to get their horses into the arena for some of the competitions,” Hergenreder said.

In the collegiate division, Laramie County Community College (Cheyenne, Wyoming) won champion team with Northeastern Junior College (Sterling, Colorado) with second place, and hosts NCTA were close behind in third.

Other collegiate riders were from the University of Wyoming (Laramie), New Mexico State University (Las Cruces) and several riders from Colorado State University (Fort Collins).

“We also hosted a ‘bra-race’ to raise awareness for breast cancer and funds to go to the Working Ranch Cowboys Association Punchy in Pink campaign as well as to help two local families (related to team members) who are currently battling breast cancer,” Hergenreder said.

“This bonus feature, held on Saturday evening, brought nearly 30 riders to participate and a full set of bleachers, all for a good cause,” she added.

The annual show hosted by the NCTA Ranch Horse team is sanctioned by the Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska Stock Horse Association and the Stock Horse of Texas.

Information about NCTA academics, the equine program and Ranch Horse Team can be found at ncta.unl.edu.

NCTA team results are listed online at: http://go.unl.edu/36ex

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