Collinsville FFA adviser Chris Uselton strives to cultivate students in and beyond judging arena

Home to a little over 2,000 people, Collinsville is the epitome of a small town. Collinsville High School (CHS) – the epitome of a small school. 

However, despite its small scale, CHS has a few big things going for it, one being its FFA chapter. 

Chris Uselton is the CHS FFA adviser, where he coaches horse judging, poultry judging and agricultural mechanics teams. He also teaches agricultural mechanics, equine science and 
agricultural fabrication and design. 

Uselton has been teaching at Collinsville for 17 years, following five years at Gainesville and four years at Callisburg, but teaching wasn’t always on his radar.

“I went to college like everybody else when I got out of high school, and I got a bachelor’s degree in animal science,” Uselton said. “I started making saddles in college down in College Station. Then I kept doing that when I moved back up here and got married and started a family. I made saddles for another 10 years at least. I owned a shop, but everybody always told me I’d be an agriculture teacher. I started (teaching) in 1999.”

While Uselton may not have become an FFA adviser instantaneously, FFA was in his life from an early point.  

Taught by his very own father in high school in Gainesville, Uselton was a major part of FFA, leading him to judge horses at the collegiate level at Texas A&M Commerce and Texas A&M in College Station. 

While there was a gap in his life that judging competitively didn’t fill, Uselton eventually drifted back to his roots. 

“I think horse judges are competitive people, and I think everybody gravitates towards something they’re good at,” Uselton said. “Teachers, they like to lean on that.”

Horse judging competitions involve students evaluating a class of horses as if they were the official judge. Each class features horses of the same breed or discipline to ensure a consistent standard. Students are tasked with placing the horses based on their conformation, movement and overall presentation. Their scorecards are then compared to those of professional judges, and the students whose placements most closely resemble the official results are ranked the highest.

Uselton appreciates all of the FFA curriculum, but horse judging may just be what he holds closest to his heart based on his history with the competition. 

On Wednesday, April 9, Collinsville students—as well as students representing seven other districts and around 140 schools—competed in the Area Horse Judging CDE (Career Development Event) Contest held at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas. 

While no first-place titles or state competition qualifications were won, Uselton was proud of his team, especially considering many of the members’ rookie status. 

“We kind of graduated some off, and this bunch was just a new team,” Uselton said. “I’m excited for next year. Sometimes it’s better to just have a really smart kid that’s got a lot of that competitiveness in them. You don’t necessarily have to be a horse person, just a really competitive person.”

While the district/area horse judging competition came with some challenges for the CHS judging team, adversity is the perfect springboard for growth. 

“You want to teach that competitiveness and that it doesn’t matter how big the hill is, take it one step at a time and you can get over it,” Uselton said. “And the more of those successes, the more confidence that you have. For example, your first trip to state (competition) might be harder than your second trip.”

Failing in anything is just about inevitable, but failing in FFA oftentimes seems to be the thing that plants success. 

“It (judging) is intimidating, and the world’s intimidating,” Uselton said. “You’ll be intimidated many times, and it’s gonna keep happening. But if you judged you’re likely to have that confidence and can get past it and be successful.”

No matter the class a student is judging, that said success isn’t just limited to a judge’s score card. It also applies to future endeavors.  

“With success in horse judging, you’re at an advantage,” Uselton said. “If you have someone with that experience and someone without it and have them do the same task, the person with the judging experience knows they can accomplish it. No one likes to talk in public, and certainly no one wants to walk in a room.”

Public speaking is a vital component in horse judging, but a competitive spirit is the very thing to tackle the challenge.

“If you have that competitiveness in you, FFA cultivates it – it waters and fertilizes it as you’re in high school,” Uselton said. “And then, when you get out of high school, there’s so many more monsters to accomplish than the small ones we have in high school.”

The small monster of making state for next year’s horse judging is one already underway for Collinsville students.

“We practice anytime we can,” Uselton said. “We go see some horses or we use AQHA magazines, and we’re always looking for what I call the ‘Corvette’ of the bunch. Even if you don’t have a Corvette, and you have a group of horses—a bus, an SUV, a pickup and a Mustang— you ask which one looks like the Corvette the most. I was always trying to get that ingrained in their mind, what that looks like.”

However, more than the scoring aspect and how to win at next year’s competition, there is one thing above all else Uselton wants to ingrain in the minds of his horse judging team – and it’s the very matter of just how capable they are in all areas of their lives. 

“Those kids can look at something that they know nothing about, and they can become experts on it if they try hard enough,” Uselton said. “That goes the same for their careers. There’s gonna be so many things that are going to look unattainable to them. From paying bills, to buying houses, to succeeding at jobs and failing at jobs and then having to regroup, FFA helps establish overcoming that.”