Photo by Dylan Jackson Avery Steffl in the 3-5th grade division, rides the Trail Class course during the Brown County 4-H Horse Show.

NEW ULM — The “Brown County 4-H Horse Show” kicked off the Brown County fair Wednesday morning.

The show had a variety of events and was judged by Rae-Ann Bartz, who has been judging for forty years.

“Each event is judged a little differently and has different criteria,” Bartz said, “some are more based on the rider while others are more focused on the horse.”

After the event, participants are awarded a different colored ribbon depending on how their performance went.

“The three colors are blue, red, and white,” Bartz said, “the blue ribbon is for those who meet all of the criteria, the red is for those who meet most of the criteria, and the white is for those that need a little more work.”

Each event was primarily split into three different groups, the cloverbuds, grades three through five, and grades six through twelve.

Participants in the cloverbud events were Brooklyn Walter and Cora Mathiowetz.

Participants in grades three through five were Avery Steffl and D’Lyla Todd.

Participants in grades six through twelve were Leah Kucera, Nolan Kucera, Millie Lax, Kaylie Piehl, Eva Schweiss, Mia Walter, Kenadie Wesal, Sydney Zarn, Emily Brown, Chloe Groe, Caidence Kucera, and Andrew Hellendrung.

Along with the three main groups, there was also a challenged rider category featuring Ellen Windschitl, and a horseless horse rider category featuring Branson Guggisberg.

The show started with showmanship events, which focused on the appearance of the horse.

After showmanship events, events that involved maneuvering the horses took place. One of the maneuvering events was the trail class, where the horses went through an obstacle course.

Other events were more specific. One event, titled ranch pleasure, focused on skills that horses would have if they were on a ranch.

Following all of the prior listed events, which fell into the pleasure class events category, game class events took place.

Game class events included pole weaving, key race, barrel race, and jumping figure eight.

The horse show was just one of many animal events that will take place during the Brown County Fair throughout the rest of the week. Thursday, August 10 will feature the Beef Show at 9:30 a.m., the Rabbit show at 1:00 p.m., and the Sheep and Goat Show at 3:30 p.m.