After seven years of horse showing, saying ‘hey’ to the Homecoming Queen will do her justice. Senior Sydney Lemanski has been showing horses with the 4-H and the American Paint Horse Association for seven years.

Her love for horses was because of a family influence.

“My grandparents had horses when I was little,” Lemanski said. “My mom did 4-H when she was a kid. My mom got me interested in it.”

At the competitions she competed with her horse, Trouble, in different events for four years.

“There’s a bunch of different events,” Lemanski said. “You can do obstacle courses, or events where they judge the horse’s conformation or the way you ride. There’s a bunch of different categories than you can compete in.”

Lemanski has won numerous competitions over the years, including place first in district in 40H horse judging in 2012, 2014 and 2015. She also has won first individually in the Ft Worth Senior Horse judging contest and San Angelo Horse judging contest in 2014; the Texas State 4-H Roundup Horse judging contest and AJPHA World Horse Judging Contest in 2015; and the Johnson County Horse Judging Contest in 2016.

Lemanski rides for two different breed associations: AJPHA, American Junior Paint Horse Association, and AQHA, American Quarter Horse Association. At each competition there are weeks of practice going into them.

“For horse judging, we went to some of the larger competitions for the national ones like Congress and HQA World and AJPHA World,” Lemanski said. “We did really well at that, but we had to do a lot of practice leading up to that. On the other side of things, like the horse showing, there is a lot of hours going into riding to get my horse ready for the competitions.”

“It’s really cool,” Lemanski said. “We learn to help each other, build, and grow. We raise each other up and encourage each other.”

Lemanski and her team qualified AQHYA World in 2014 and 2015, placing second and third overall as a team. They also won state in 2015, allowing them to compete in Ohio at the All American Quarter Horse Congress where they placed fourth as a team.

“It was a really great feeling because that was our goal for a year,” Lemanski said. “It was more exciting winning with my team because that’s how we qualified. We put in so many hours for that and having it pay off was great.”

Lemanski had her last two competitions in San Antonio, Feb. 18 and in Houston, March 7. At each event, there was a prize of $10,000 and $500 scholarships.

“San Antonio was an off day,” Lemanski said. “I didn’t do as great as I wanted to, but one of my team members actually won the $10,000 scholarship. That was great. Then Houston was our last contest ever and we won it as a team. That was an awesome way to go out.”

Lemanski has also shown Trouble in several horse shows across Texas.

“Most notable, she rode him multiple times at the Texas State 4-H Horse Show in Abilene and in Ft. Worth at the same AJPHA World contests that her judging team won the past couple of years,” Sundra Lemanski, Sydney’s mom said. “She only placed fifth and sixth in her riding classes at the World Show, but showing at that level against ‘the best of the best’ youth riders of Paint Horses was very exciting.”

When she’s not practicing, Lemanski helps younger kids on the Williamson County teams with her coach, Lisa Onstot.

“It’s good to give back to the community,” Lemanski said. “I was that kid at one point and time. Now I have done all these different things and come a long way. It’s coming to a full circle.”

Lemanski is content with her junior horse career and is considering on continuing horse judging in college as an extracurricular.

“Not as a career,” Lemanski said. “I may do judging in college, you can’t judge freshman year but maybe sophomore year. I’m undecided about that.”

Even though this year was her last year in the junior competitions, Lemanski is glad to have the experience.

“I’m happy with how we did,” Lemanski said. “We went to the highest level we could. We did our best. I’m content with it.”