Our EC bloggers, Trace Thompson and Ericka Schaefer, will be blogging throughout the week, so stay tuned to EquineChronicle.com for photos, results, and stories about all the action at South Point.

The first is J’Nan Wittler with Invitation To Be Good who won the Amateur Ranch riding. She said, “As I entered the arena, I felt confident and prepared. I was excited to see the results from our countless hours of practice at the barn.”

We are Dailey Kanipe, Caroline Kanipe, and Austin Lester from P5 Equestrian and we’re here at the Level 1 Novice Championships Central in Oklahoma City. Yesterday, along with many other competitors, we moved in. You can feel the excitement and determination here.

Now in his 80s, D. Wayne Lukas gave this advice: “Lose your fear of losing and recognize that the losing gives you an opportunity to educate, where winning helps you to build confidence.”

It was a little sad to see that our youth numbers have dropped so drastically all around the board. We had seen it at home in Alabama, but to know it was everywhere was a little disheartening. We looked at statistics regarding youth that had answered surveys. We’ve seen a 20% drop since 2008 in our youth. But, we listened to the panel and our current Youth President talk about ways that we can fix this and move forward.