HEADED TO OKLAHOMA — Members of the Edison High School FFA equine management team will head to the 55th-annual National Arabian Horse Judging Contest, to be held in Tulsa, Okla., on Oct. 24-25. The team earned seventh-place during state competition in Wilmington. Members of the team include, from left, Micah Larkins, Amelia Ault, Leila Sudvary and Maddie Granatir. -- Contributed

RICHMOND — Members of the Edison High School FFA will be heading west this fall, as they will attend a national event scheduled to take place in Oklahoma.

Adviser Chuck Cline explained the equine management team will attend the 55th-annual National Arabian Horse Judging Contest in Tulsa, Okla. The event will be held Oct. 24-25.

This event invites members of the FFA, Arabian Horse Association and collegiate judging teams to participate.

The Edison team will consist of seven members who will be involved in the national competition, according to Cline.

The national event follows how the team performed when they went to state competition.

FFA students visited the Wilmington Equestrian Center on March 22.

Their performance was good enough to continue the next step in the competition — nationals.

“We ended up placing seventh in teams,” Cline explained. “It’s the Top 10 out of the state who get to advance to the nationals.”

According to officials, there were 381 students throughout Ohio who participated in the state competition.

In addition to the team competition, students had the opportunity to compete individually in various activities.

Those individual contests ranked the students, with Edison placing within the top 50.

Maddie Granatir, an incoming senior, finished the individual competition in seventh place.

Leila Sudvary, an incoming sophomore, placed 24th.

Micah Larkins, who was a senior at the time of competition, placed 40th.

Incoming sophomore Amelia Ault placed 44th.

Team activities included judging horses and orally presenting reasons why they placed.

Students could also give a presenation before judges.

“All four were given a problem and had to solve it,” Cline said of those who individually placed within the top 50.

“Then, they were split up in teams of two,” he continued. “They had topics such as injections, tack selection, assessing colic and feed calculations. They were judged individually on oral reasons. I’m very excited for the students and that they’re able to go out and compete nationally. I’m excited to see how well they progress in the future.”

The team fared well throughout the school year, taking second place out of 32 teams at the Miami Trace Invitational held March 8.

The team earned seventh place out of 67 teams during the Marysville Invitational on March 1.

Granatir placed eighth in the state public speaking contest, Cline said, noting only 20 participants get to advance to the state event.