Setzer excels as Athens County’s first to compete in Driving at State Fair

On Monday, Emmalee Setzer, 11, of the Back in the Saddle 4-H Club, became the first-ever Athens County 4-H member to compete in driving at the Ohio State Fair’s Junior Horse Show.

And she did not disappoint: Grand Champion in Driven Trail; Reserve Champion in Driving Reinsmanship; and Third Place in Pleasure Driving.

Driving is a challenging competition involving commands given to her equine — Doc, a calm, steady Haflinger gelding — with Setzer holding the reins and Doc hitched to a two-wheeled cart. Carts in driving competitions are similar to those driven by harness racing drivers but heavier.

“My horse just really enjoys doing this, so it makes it a lot easier to work with him,” said Emmalee, adding that that to be the first to compete in driving for an Athens County 4-H club makes her “really proud to carry that honor.”

Driving involves a high degree of trust between horse and driver, said Emmalee’s mom, Beka, who is Back in the Saddle club’s founder and adviser. It involves Emmalee and Doc having to execute numerous pivots — similar in appearance to Doc making side steps — as she instructs him to move forward, to the side, and back up around different obstacles.

“I’ve mostly been on the sidelines, guiding her,” Beka said of her daughter. “She’s done all of the training herself.”

Emmalee and Doc qualified for the state fair’s Junior Horse Show in June in Chillicothe, Beka said, during an event known as a Point Against Standard (PAS) show. She qualified in all three driving classes: Driving Reinsmaship, focused on driver ability executing patterns and rail work; Pleasure Driving, which centers on the horse’s reactions as it encounters structures and executes gaits; and Driven Trail, the most difficult of the classes with a course full of obstacles to overcome.

Emmalee has demonstrated expertise at a young age in instructing Doc what pace to move at, such as the park gait, a slow trot and the road gait, which is faster. She said it gives her joy to work with Doc every day because competing in a calm manner is his calling. Haflingers are known for being chestnut in color with a flaxen mane, with draft horse qualities while technically being a pony.

Emmalee described Driven Trail competition as a series of obstacle courses. It is such a demanding part of Driving competition that is she is the only 4-H member who qualified at the State Fair level and competed for it at the Junior Horse Show. One element involves entering a 12- by 20-foot structure that resembles a wooden box.

“We have to drive in, make a turn in it, back up, and then turn out of the box, without touching anything,” Emmalee said, adding that to do so means point deductions. Another event entails driving over parallel wooden poles spaced six inches apart and placed between her cart wheels.

Emmalee and Doc were well prepared for the obstacles they would face long before entering the state fair Driving competition. During an Equine Training Partners event in April held in the Hocking Hills, Emmalee and Doc rode alongside other equestrians putting their horses through Mounted Police training. Distractions and obstacles to overcome included fireworks, smoke machines, and even drones hovering overhead. Horses had to exude calm and remain steady while responding to commands.

“Remote-control cars were driving in and out under their feet,” Beka said.

Beka and her husband, Marc, a farrier and blacksmith, gave Doc to Emmalee just before Christmas when he was 2, and Emmalee was approaching her fourth birthday. And they have been inseparable since, with Doc now 10 — a productive age for horses entered in competitions, Beka said. The family lives on a farm in Langsville, just inside Meigs County and west of Albany.

Emmalee also gains inspiration from her younger sister, Annalyn, 8, whom Beka calls an “aspiring trick rider.” She can ride her horse backward, and also stand on her horse. Her dad provides inspiration of his own as a self-employed farrier and blacksmith under his own Setzer Forge name. He is an accomplished jousting competitor at regional and state events such as the Ohio Renaissance Festival.

Beka is certified with the Mustang Heritage Foundation as a TIP (Training Incentive Program) specialist. It means she has taken a mustang placed in her care, trained it, and had it ready for adoption after 100 days — a mustang that had to demonstrate different commands in graded competition.

Beka sought to have one mustang she trained, Raiden, adopted after the TIP competition. When no one came forward to adopt, she and Marc gave Raiden to Annalyn for her seventh birthday.

Beka said the trusting relationship that Emmalee and Doc have developed over many years is much like the relationship she had with her very first horse, an Appaloosa named Stormy. She owned Stormy from the age of 8 and entered numerous 4-H competitions with him. Then, when she was in her late teens, Stormy developed a progressive eye disease known as Equine Recurrent Uveitis, or “moon blindness.”

Despite efforts to save his sight, Stormy became completely blind, Beka said. But that didn’t stop her from riding him, and in fact, spurred them on to new accomplishments. She retrained him using voice commands and took him out for practices on trail rides that included family outings to Zaleski State Forest.

Then, she put Stormy and her horsemanship to the ultimate test, making him the first completely blind horse to be entered into the Extreme Cowboy Race at the state fairgrounds. That was in 2010, when she was 20. Timed events included jumping, roping, speeding through tunnels, and finishing the race with a full gallop through the arena.

“He was an unbelievable horse, and there’s no chance I will have a relationship like that with another horse for the rest of my life,” Beka said, adding that Stormy passed on about five years ago.

Beka said she hopes Emmalee’s special relationship with Doc, and their affinity for driving competition, will inspire other Athens County 4-H club members to take up the sport. It is not common in southern Ohio, with most of the driving competitors at the state’s Junior Horse Show being from north of Columbus, she said.

Last year, one of Beka's Back in the Saddle 4-H members, Bailey Ewing, won Grand Champion in the Trail Class at the Ohio State Fair Junior Horse Show. This year at the State Fair, Emmalee is also entering the Costume category with a flowing, Sea Queen-themed dress, made from a real wedding dress, which is so long, it flows over her driving cart.