Youth of the year 2022

To play a little catch-up... after some success with county and state level 4H knowledge competitions (and a few invitations to participate on regional and national teams), two of our Blackrose seniors, Tucker Murdough (17) and Madeline "Rosie" Tylenda (16) decided to give a local level AMHA Youth of the Year contest a try. 

Their first attempt was at the Harold P. Brown contest at the NEMHA Summer Kickoff show in July 2022 in Deerfield, NH, and both of these teens really hit it out of the park. They both were especially impressive with their oral reasons in the judging phase, largely thanks to the incredible foundation 4H programming has instilled in them.
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We finished with...
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Rosie - Overall Senior Division Champion
Equitation - 3rd
Speech - 1st
Written Test - 1st
Judging - 2nd

Tucker - Overall Senior Division Reserve Champion
Equitation - 2nd
Speech - 2nd
Written Test - 3rd
Judging - 1st

The championship for Rosie qualified her as a National Finalist!

Team Blackrose wasn't done there, though, and represented extremely well once again at the New York Regional Youth of the Year contest on September 17, 2022. With one team member already qualified, we had high hopes for Tucker, and his additional practice over the last couple of months really paid off! While Tucker was the only contestant in the Senior division (walking away with a championship and 1st place in all areas of the contest), he still met and exceeded the point requirement to qualify himself as a National Finalist! Hard work really pays off! 

Yet again, Blackrose wasn't done there! We packed our bags and a couple of very short weeks later, we headed to Oklahoma for the 2022 Morgan Grand National for the National Youth of the Year Contest! There were 20 youth in total, most of whom had been been competing 3...4...even 5 years in a row, everyone vying for that top honor. We had very high hopes, but reasonable expectations... and once again, the kids did spectacularly, once again! Even #19 and #20 earned their places with a lot of really hard work, and that's something to be really proud of. 

We finished the 2022 National Youth of the Year contest with Tucker bringing home a 1st place in the judging phase of the contest, which also earned him the Shirley Given's Memorial Trophy. This trophy is awarded by the Oklahoma Horse Industry Council to an outstanding youth in the AMHA Youth of the Year Horse Judging Division contestant. In the overall placings (taking into account points from across all 4 phases), Rosie finished in 12th place, and Tucker in 16th. 

We couldn't be more proud of these two. They've brought back stories of all of their amazing adventures at MGN to share with their friends at the barn and beyond in Vermont. We hope to have more youth in tow next year, and maybe we'll even bring the top honor back to the home state of the Morgan horse!