2024 Delaware 4-H Horse Bowl Contest

The annual 4-H Horse Bowl Contest encourages youth to work in teams to demonstrate their equine knowledge about all aspects of horsemanship, including but not limited to healthcare, nutrition, tack, equipment, and ownership responsibilities. Teams are comprised of 2 to 4 youth that compete in a double elimination quiz-show style format. Team entry age is based on the age of the oldest participant in the group.

Date and Time

Saturday, March 16, 2024, 9:00 am

Location

Lake Forest North Elementary School

Felton, Delaware

Register

Entries, including entry fee, must be made online by 11:59 pm on February 16, 2024.

Online entries should be made by the team coach and member eligibility will be verified by the 4-H Office. If you have any issues please contact Caroline DelVecchio cadv@udel.edu An entry fee of $15 per team must accompany the online entry.

Registration link: https://horsebowl2024.4honline.com/

If you have special needs that need to be accommodated, please contact the office two weeks prior to the event.

Cooperative Extension Education in Agriculture and Home Economics, University of Delaware, Delaware State University and the United States Department of Agriculture cooperating.  Distributed in furtherance of Acts of Congress of May 8 and June 30,1914.  It is the policy of the Delaware Cooperative Extension System that no person shall be subjected to discrimination on the grounds of race, color, sex, disability, age, or national origin.

General Rules, Regulations and Entry

1. Selection of Teams, Contestants, and Eligibility

1. Any club or organization may enter a team, which may consist of two (2) to four (4) members each.
2. All contestants must have passed their 8th birthday and must not have passed their 19th birthday as of January 1st of the current year.
3. Contestants may not have participated in a previous National Horse Bowl Contest as an official member or alternate.
4. The club and/or organizational leader must certify contestant and team entry and eligibility.
5. Contestants must be entered in the appropriate age division (as of 1/1/24):  8-10, 11-13, 14-19. Any team whose members come from two age groups must compete in the older group.
6. At the discretion of the Delaware 4-H Horse Advisory Committee, teams may be combined if only a single member of a team shows up the day of the contest.
7. Individual responses from Senior contestants (14-19) will be tracked by a 4-H Horse Advisory. Committee member to identify top senior members to potentially participate in an out-of-state Horse Bowl type event.

2. Questions may be from:

4-H Horse Manuals (blue cover 2015 version):

“Giddy Up and Go”, “Head, Heart and Hooves”, “Stable Relationships”, “Riding the Range,” “Jumping to New Heights,” “Horse Project Helper’s Guide.,” and 4-H Horse curriculum corrections found on-line at www.n4hccs.org .  2015 version 4-H Horse Manuals  

In addition to the 4-H Horse Project manuals:

Age 8-10: Horse Care for Kids, by Cherry Hill

Age 11-13: Your Horse, a step-by-step guide to horse ownership, by Judy Chapple
(and age 8-10 material).

Horses and Horsemanship by Ray Antoniewicz, National 4-H Council

Age 14 and older: Storey’s Horse-Lover’s Encyclopedia, edited by Deborah Burns
(and age 8-10 and 11-13 material).

Horse Science by Ray Antoniewicz, National 4-H Council

Questions will be comprised from the following three categories:

• Regular questions (worth 1 point each) to which any member of either team may respond.
• Toss-up questions (worth 1 point each) to which any member of either team may respond.  [The only difference between a regular and a toss-up question would be that toss-up questions would have a bonus question attached to each and, in general, would be somewhat more difficult than the regular questions.]
• Bonus questions (worth a predetermined 1-3 points); all parts of the bonus question must be answered before any points will be awarded.  No part of the bonus question will be repeated, nor will any additional information be given to the contestants relative to the questions.  Any member of the team winning the toss-up may provide answers to bonus questions

This will be conducted as a double elimination event.  Answers to any questions, which are shown to be in conflict between references, will be discarded.  The decision of the judge as to the acceptability of any answer will be final.

3. Entries

Entries, including entry fee, must be made online by 11:59 pm on February 16, 2024.

An entry fee of $15 for each team must accompany the online entry.

Teams will be registered on an “as received” basis.  We reserve the right to limit the numbers of teams per division. 

Teams must be preregistered in order to compete in the 4-H Horse Bowl. Day of contest entries will not be accepted.  If you have registered for the Horse Bowl you will receive written confirmation in return.

4. Awards to the top teams

In each age category:  1st Prize $35 2nd Prize $20 3rd Prize $15

For additional information, contact Susan Garey at (302)730-4000 or truehart@udel.edu..

 5. Rules

A.  Cell Phone Use and Recording of Questions

• Young people participating in the contest may not use a cell phone while they are in the competition.  This includes the time spent in the holding area as well as in the hallway between the contest room and the holding area. Because we continue to have ongoing issues with cell phone use in the holding area and deliberate ignoring of this rule, we will now be collecting all cell phones to be held in a basket at the front of the holding area.  If a child needs to contact a parent, they can do so in the presence of a room monitor. Once a participant has been eliminated from competition, they may use their cell phone.  Violation of this cell phone policy will result in disqualification from the contest.

• Spectators may not use cell phones in contest rooms and must have them turned off.
• No recording of questions by any means (audio, video, written etc.) is permitted.  Violation of this policy by anyone in attendance may result in the individual being dismissed from the competition room for the remainder of the event and/or disqualification of the teams they are affiliated with, from the contest.  This is in accordance with the spirit of the competition not to “teach to the question” or have youth simply memorizing answers. 

B.  Reading and Answering the Questions

1. The moderator will read all questions and identify the type of question.  Ten seconds will be allowed for starting a response.  If an answer is not given or wrong, the moderator will read the next question.  If the answer given is the same as or means the same as the expected answer, it will be accepted.  If the answer is different than the expected answer, it will be referred to the judge for a decision.
2. Once a contestant activates a buzzer, they must be acknowledged before they can answer the question.  After they have been acknowledged, the contestant has ten seconds to start a valid answer.  First answers will be considered valid answers.
3. An acknowledgement penalty of one point will be deducted from the contestant’s and their team’s score if they answer a question before being acknowledged.
4. If a question is interrupted during the reading of it, the moderator will stop reading as soon as a buzzer is activated.  The contestant has ten seconds after being acknowledged, to begin their answer.  If the answer given is correct for the way the question was written, it will be accepted.  If the answer given is correct for only the portion of the question heard, but wrong for the way the question is written, the answer will not be accepted.  If the question was interrupted, the judges will not be allowed to ask for any type of clarification of the answer given. 
5. The judge will be allowed to verify an answer, or the validity of a question.  If verification cannot be made, the question will be replaced.  The judge has the final say.  Disruptive and/or disrespectful behavior by parents or coaches will not be tolerated.  If a coach or parent continues to argue after an official ruling has been given, the coach or parent will be dismissed from the competition room for the remainder of the event and/or the team may be disqualified. 
6. The first answer given by a contestant will be the answer accepted by the judge.

C.  Double Elimination

1. Teams – Each team will play in a pre-numbered position, according to the position number drawn by the team captain or event official.
2. A total of two losses will automatically eliminate a team from the competition. 

D.  Individual Scores

Scores will be kept for each senior individual contestant, with the high 5 individual contestants receiving special recognition. 

E.  Time Outs 

The team captain, coach or any staff member may call for a “time out” for clarification of a rule, score, to seat an alternate, or to allow for any unexpected problem.  “Time-outs” may be called only after a question has been answered and before the next question starts.

F.  Holding Area

All teams, alternates, and coaches must remain in the designated holding area until it is their turn to play.

1. After their round match is played, they must go to an appropriate designated area, until the conclusion of the round in progress. 
2. After the round is completed, all teams/alternates and coaches (not eliminated from the contest) must return to the designated holding area to await the next match. 
3. All coaches in the holding area are responsible for supervision of the teams.  These rules are a matter of ethics and require the cooperation of all team members and coaches. 

G.  Contest Procedures

1. Teams are assembled and seated at their respective panels, with the designated team captain seated in the #1 chair, nearest the middle.  Each contestant will be given the opportunity to check the equipment. 
2. The designated set of questions for each round will be opened by the moderator and verified with the judge/referee before starting the game.  Prior to reading a question, the moderator will announce the number and type of question.  Each succeeding question will be read in this manner, until all the questions for that match are read.  The correct answer will be given for all unanswered or wrong answers during the final use of that round of questions. 
3. Contestants, who respond to a question, will receive the appropriate points applied to a particular question. 
4. If the time (ten (10) seconds) in which to answer a question lapses without a contestant activating the buzzer, there shall be no loss or awarding or points to either team.  In this case, after the response time has elapsed, the next question will be read. 
5. If the buzzer is activated and an answer is not started within the 10 second allowable time, the question will be offered to the opposing team for a response.  Should the second team not respond or respond incorrectly, the next question will be read. 

H.  Time Allowed for

• To start a response to a question 10 seconds
• To start answer after acknowledgement 10 seconds
• For team to confer on a bonus question 60 seconds

I.  Information Sources

No source of information is infallible. At times there may be answers given that are in agreement with the recommended reference books, which in fact are erroneous or out of date. Every effort is made to eliminate such questions, however, in the event one slips in, the judges may agree to: 

1. Accept the answer and give an explanation of the correct or up-dated information, for future use of the question. 
2. Accept only the correct answer. 
3. Replace the question to the appropriate contestants. 

The judge’s ruling is final.