ALIQUIPPA, Pa. — No one is a bigger 4-H advocate than Alexa Davis, president of the Hookstown Hooves 4-H Club in Beaver County.
Davis is an avid equestrian who turned her love of animals into an opportunity to share that passion with others when she joined the newly formed Hookstown Hooves 4-H club.
She quickly rose through the ranks of the group and worked hard to increase membership and involvement. For her efforts, she was recently named Penn State Extension’s 2024 Outstanding 4-H’er and will represent the state at the National 4-H Congress in Atlanta in November.
“Whenever I joined 4-H when I was younger … It was a (way) to make friends and get into the agriculture and horse world,” Davis said. “Now it is honestly part of me. I couldn’t imagine not being in 4-H. It has helped me grow so much.”
From horses to 4-H
Davis started riding horses when she was 3 years old. At the age of 7, she began taking weekly lessons at the barn she still rides at today, Blue Ribbon Farms.
It was Blue Ribbon Farms that encouraged her to join 4-H; the owner of the stable was a huge advocate of the program. Davis joined the Silver Spurs 4-H Club in her sixth-grade year in 2018; that same year she also started showing horses.
Davis competes in western pleasure, showmanship, horsemanship and trail disciplines. She has shown horses on numerous occasions, including with her 4-H club at the Hookstown Fairgrounds, at district shows in Crawford County and at state shows in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. She qualified for the state show three times in 2024, 2023 and 2019. Her barn also attends the annual All-American Youth Horse Show in Columbus, Ohio.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 4-H didn’t meet much in 2020, but when the opportunity arose for Davis to join a new club in 2023, she took it.
Hookstown Hooves
Morgan Luxon started the Hookstown Hooves 4-H club in 2023. Luxon, a previous 4-H’er herself, started the club because of a lack of equine and animal science education in Beaver County.
Davis was one of the first students to join the Hookstown Hooves Club. As the club sought to find its foothold, the first year of officer elections was held on a volunteer basis. Davis, having previous experience in 4-H, offered to lead the club.
“Because in 2023 we were so brand new, we didn’t have a lot of kids. The kids that we did have, most of them had no idea what 4-H even was or had never been in it before,” Luxon said. “But she was willing to step up and take on that role as president.”
Being president of a newly formed 4-H club had its challenges. A large portion of Davis’ role in the beginning was recruiting members. Since the pandemic, involvement in 4-H hasn’t been the same — another reason why Davis heavily focused on recruitment.
To get new members, she encouraged friends to join and recruited new riders at Blue Ribbon Farms.
“It’s something to get (young kids) involved with before they even have their own animals, before they have all these opportunities themselves,” Davis said.
Alongside recruiting members, she also helped new 4-H’ers become acclimated with the program mission, wrote agendas and reminders for monthly meetings and planned events.
Davis planned one of their main service events, which entailed cleaning up the roads in Independence Township. “We came out on our Saturday and cleaned up roads,” Davis said. “It’s not usually typical for teenage kids, but we had a fun time doing it.”
The Hookstown Hooves held its first officer election in 2024. Members were so impressed with Davis’ performance the year prior that she was voted back in as president for another term. Today, she has been president for three years.
Penn State Outstanding 4-H’er
Davis was named Penn State Extension Beaver County’s Outstanding 4-H’er at the 2024 Hookstown Fair in August. As this year’s awardee, she will fly down to participate in the National 4-H Congress in Georgia, an annual national leadership event, from Nov. 29 to Dec. 3.
“From the beginning, she’s really been an outstanding 4-H member,” Luxon said. “Anywhere she’s at, if people are talking to her, she’s like ‘Yeah I’m in 4-H, this is where I’m at, this is what you could do.’ She has been totally for everything 4-H since day one.”
Davis was also crowned Hookstown Fair Queen in 2023. She graduated high school in the spring and now attends Robert Morris University, studying biology and pre-medicine.
As Davis closes off her final as president of the Hookstown Hooves, she hopes to hold other roles in 4-H in the future and has a message for future recruits.
“Whenever I was doing my interview for fair queen, they asked me ‘How would you describe 4-H to somebody who didn’t know what it was,’ and I told them: It’s for those kids that don’t have typical interests, they want to be outside, they want to get dirty and they want to go hang out at a farm or go plant some vegetables or take care of their animals,” Davis said. “It’s a really good program, and kids need to start signing up more. It needs to grow, it needs to grow back into what it used to be.”
(Liz Partsch can be reached at epartsch@farmanddairy.com or 330-337-3419.)
