Raven Cooper is just 21, but her love of horses has made a lasting impact on her 4-H students.
“Raven is the best,” said Leye Blount, mother of incoming 4-H freshman Dosie Blount. “I feel that she’s a really good role model for the girls.”
Cooper coaches elementary through early high school students in Oglethorpe County about horses, educating them on topics such as disease, vaccinations, nutrition and breeds.
“My favorite thing about teaching them is how excited they are to learn and how much they want to learn,” Cooper said. “They go home and study and come back and amaze me by how much they’ve already learned and memorized.”
According to Oglethorpe County 4-H agent Marcus Eason, Cooper’s service ties to her past.
“She loves to give back,” Eason said. “She grew up in 4-H.”
Cooper’s journey began in fourth grade, when Eason came to Oglethorpe County Elementary School. Once he mentioned horse quiz bowls and horse judging competitions, she joined.
“You get to do a lot of cool things,” Cooper said. “You get to meet cool people with interests, learn things with them, and we got to go to Denver for it.”
The Western National Round-Up is held in Colorado, but leading up to that, Cooper coaches her students in horse quiz bowl, horse judging and hippology. Each competition allows for students to apply their equine knowledge in a real-world setting, while improving life skills.
Eason said he’s thankful for Cooper’s “impressive” influence on the 4-H community and her students.
“She's very knowledgeable about horses,” Eason said.
In fact, during her senior year in high school Cooper’s team placed first in the state for the horse quiz bowl, and went on to place fourth in the nation. She also ended up in second place individually by one point.
Raised in Comer, she now lives in Commerce and works on a horse breeding farm. She said she hopes to give her students more hands-on experiences — and hopefully the chance to compete at nationals in Denver for themselves.
“It’s therapy. I love it, just being with horses,” Cooper said. “You start at a young age, and you stick with it. You always love them and always want to take care of them and be with them.”