Love of horses takes teen to state honors

SANDPOINT — Kaira Whalen can't remember a time when she didn't love horses.

She grew up living in town, riding a tricycle on the back porch and playing on a swing set in the yard. But she was fascinated by television shows about gardening and the rural lifestyle. 

As she got older, her grandparents acquired a 5-acre parcel in Blanchard, and the family added a couple of cows, then chickens and ducks. Pretty much everything but horses.

That didn't stop her from trying.

She'd talked about horses nonstop, she read books about them, and her Christmas and birthday lists were filled with requests for horse models. Calendars — of horses, naturally — were torn apart at the end of the year, forming a collage on her walls.

"But just to see how much heart and dedication they put into everything they do, I just think it is the most amazing thing," she said. "And the fact that an animal is so big, you know, all they need is a leader. And that's what they look for. And they just want somebody to be able to trust. And I don't know, it just kind of developed into something more."

It was when, after heading out on what Whalen thought was just another trip to look at cattle with her grandparents, that the family pulled up to a house with a horse in the yard.

"I'm like, 'Where are the cows? There are no cows here.' But there was a horse in their front yard," said Whalen, who was 11 at the time. "So my grandpa, he's like, 'Well, do you want her or not?' "

It didn't take long for Whalen to say yes, she wanted the horse. Unfortunately for the youth, her grandmother said she could not ride the horse until after she got lessons. So Whalen spent the winter talking to the horse, named Fancy, brushing her, petting her and talking to her.

The following spring, they connected with 4-H leader Connie Spurgeon who asked them to bring Fancy over with t so she could see if the two would be a good match.

"My grandma was like, they've spent the whole winter bonding and you're going to say there's a chance that they might not even work out," Whalen said. "But we ended up doing amazing in my first year with her."

After spending a few years in the Bonner County 4-H horse program, Whalen transferred to Kootenai County for a couple of years. In addition to the horse program, she got involved with the Know Your Government conference and the State Teen Association convention, embracing a host of leadership roles.

After transferring back to the Bonner County program, Whalen said she "cycled through" all of the horse projects included in the program, including the Bonner County Horsemanship Award. Thinking she'd done it all, Whalen said Spurgeon approached her with "a great idea."

She told the 4-H leader that it was her last year. Spurgeon told her that she could have another year. 

The great idea? The Idaho State Horsemanship Award. 

Like the Bonner County version, the state horsemanship award tallies up a 4-H'er's community service and involvement, how they've done at shows, and takes a look at their extracurricular activities. Equine knowledge and leadership skills are judged as well as horsemanship skills and ability.

"It's not just a matter of if you and your horse can do it," Whalen said. "Obviously, that's a big portion, but it also, if your horse is having a bad day, or if the weather's not great, or anything, it takes into account like how you're able to handle the situation, if you respond really calm and communicate well with your animal. So everything's taken in, and then your speech is a public presentation, and you have to have a good audience. So it's just kind of like the county horsemanship award, but like 10 times bigger. It's a lot of fun."

The first step is taking a several-hundred-question written test to determine a 4-H'er's knowledge of horses. Questions range from breed origins to basic terms to care of the animals to riding and everything in-between, and featuring a combination of multiple choice and essay questions. 

Those who pass the written test move on to the skills test and presentation. Whoever gets the highest total of points in the state earns the award.

Whalen, who took the test at the start of last summer, said when she didn't hear anything by early fall, she figured she hadn't passed. Then she got the phone call asking if Whalen could be ready the following weekend to give her presentation and undergo her skills test.

"So I get off the phone and my grandma, she's like, 'What?' [I told her] 'I should have been working on my speech this summer, because I have nothing. Absolutely nothing."

After considering, and discarding several ideas, Whalen said her usual method of focusing on a particular horse wasn't the type of presentation she wanted to give.

"In every illustrated talk and everything that I've done, it's always been on one particular story and always been on a racehorse because I love everything that they embrace. How they have smooch heart and dedication," she said. "I ended up picking apart that with my own experience and things that I've learned from other people and stuff I've taken from leadership and the impact that all this had on me and I did kind of like an all-inclusive speech.… I just kind of talked on everything from where it started to how it's helped me and where it's put me now."

It was fun, Whalen said, to talk about the people and horses who have helped shape her into the person she has become. Her grandparents, her mom and all of her family. Her horses — from Fancy, now 24 and whom she still has, to Cleo, who she got out of a herd in Montana and had to be roped in order to be loaded into the trailer for the ride to Bonner County.

"I really, really enjoyed it," she said. "It was so much fun to be able to talk about it because it wasn't just, 'Oh yeah, 4-H has been super fun, great experience, here we are. There was so many like, struggles and challenges and times where I was like, 'Gosh, I don't know if I can get through this.'"

With Cleo so young, and recently recovering from an injury where she cut her leg after getting out during a storm, Whalen said she was unsure how the pair would do when it came to the skills test. But, she said, she was up front with the 4-H tester and settled down to do their best.

There were things Cleo had refused to do all year, but that day? Whalen said the horse was amazing.

"I was like, 'You refuse to do this all year long, but I really appreciate that when it does count  super a lot, you pull through and you do it,' " Whalen said, adding the horse did amazing. "I was just so proud of her." 

While "super intense," going after the award was a lot of fun and taught her that she can accomplish anything she puts her mind to, Whalen said.

"It's made to sound like a really intimidating task to try and accomplish, but it's just really a matter of believing in yourself just enough to kind of push you through it," she added. "Because I definitely was lacking in that department a little bit. But luckily, everyone that I had around me, especially Connie and my grandma, they're like, just try it like it's not gonna hurt to just give it a chance. So I did, and it paid off really well, which is really exciting."

While she doesn't know how many people tried to get the award, Whalen said she's glad her family and mentors encouraged her to go for it when she doubted herself.

"I've always been the type of person that I want to set myself up for success, but I'm really scared of failing," Whalen said. "And so I tried to almost downplay it for myself a little bit, so I don't get my hopes up too much." 

When she got the word she'd won the award, Whalen said she was working at a barn in Post Falls, training horses. She'd just finished working with one horse, when she got the call. She let her family know and then went back to work.

"And then I got done riding one of the other horses, and I turned him out, and I sat down, and I was just thinking about it. And then I started crying. Definitely started crying. I don't do that very often," she recalled. "I was like 'What the heck is going on right now' and I started thinking about it.

"I was just so overwhelmed by the fact that I had refused to let myself be proud of the things that I have in front of me that I have accomplished. It's just so hard because I feel like, like I've accomplished it. But at the same thing, like I don't want to be prideful. But there's a difference between that and being proud of yourself. And that's a hard thing. It's been a very hard thing for me to understand. Like, I'm not prideful, it's okay to be proud of yourself for the things you've accomplished and the things that you've earned."

Whalen said she plans to focus this summer on filling in the holes in Cleo's training, hoping to get her ready for rodeo work. She said she has a hunch it's something they both will enjoy.

"I want to make sure that with any of my horses, we try different things and I find something that they love," Whalen said. "So that's what I do. I'm like they love it, I'll love it too because they're enjoying themselves."

In between training horses and teaching youngsters to ride, Whalen works at a coffee stand. As she looks into the future, she said she sees so many opportunities and possibilities. There's the possibility of being a large animal veterinarian, being involved with equine therapy and teaching others to love horses — and through that, conquer their own fears.

"I feel really lucky though with my family and the mentors that I've had, like, they have never, ever told me that I can't do something," she added. "And that has been so important because for myself, I'm like, 'I can't do this,' and everyone around me is like, 'there's no reason that you can't do this, take every opportunity that's given to you, and take it as far as you possibly can. And if it only gets to a certain point, or if you find a different one, go do that, you know, like, never limit yourself.'"

"And I think that is the most important thing that I've taken away from anything that they have ever told me or taught me is that you don't have to limit yourself. It's endless possibilities. And you don't have to just to keep yourself in one spot. It's okay to go and try a bunch of different things. Because that's how you really get to know what you love.