Roper will not compete in event

Requirements call for participants to be entered in two events.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- A teenager paralyzed in a December truck crash is upset that 4-H rules will prevent him from competing in an Ohio State Fair lasso throwing event because he uses a wheelchair.
Justin Hill, 18, is the Guernsey County champion for roping a calf dummy from the ground. But state 4-H rules require competitors to qualify in two events to participate in the state horse show Saturday, and the remaining events all require participants to be on horseback.
Guernsey 4-H officials waived the two-event rule, and Hill made three throws of the rope from his wheelchair.
At the state level, however, 4-H officials said they can't break rules to accommodate Hill's inability to ride a horse. While he'll be permitted to toss his rope at the state fairgrounds, his throws will not be scored.
"It's not fair," said Hill, who lives near Kimbolton, about 75 miles east of Columbus.
"I don't know why the county would let me try out and then the state said I couldn't. That's like sticking something in my face and then telling me I can't have it."
The state 4-H has consistently enforced the rule requiring participants to compete in two horse show events and the county should not have waived the rule, said Jeff King, Ohio 4-H assistant director for youth development.
"The rule was certainly not put in place to eliminate Justin," he said.
King said officials thought it would not be fair to change the rule so close to the competition because it could exclude other children who might have had reason to qualify in just one event.
Experience
Hill, who has been a 4-H member for seven years, is in his last year in the group before he reaches the 19-year-old age limit.
He competed twice at the Ohio State Fair and won third place in the barrels and poles racing event on his horse, Quarter Moon Leo, in 2002.
Roping "is the only thing I have left," Hill said.
Hill's mother, Tammi Lafferty, said her son has worked hard to rehabilitate after suffering spinal injuries when his pickup truck flipped on an icy road Dec. 20.
He graduated on schedule from Newcomerstown High School in 2006 and has walked a couple steps with a walker.
Lafferty said 4-H officials should make changes to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.