By: Lyle Jackson
Horse show people make the same mistakes all around the world. I was flying back home from having judged a horse show in Italy and was thinking that people do poorly at horse shows all over the world for many of the same reasons.
Whether it’s an AQHA show in Italy, a 4-H show Canada, or a NRHA show in Australia, competent riders make the mistake of simply practicing the wrong things. They don’t show the judge what he needs to see to let them win the class.
It’s ironic because as a judge, when we step out into that ring, we really want to find the winner, that’s our job. We are not looking for people to make mistakes; we need to find the winner in the class – that is what is important. The bottom end of the class is easy and not nearly as important as the finding the top end.
It is no secret what the judge is looking for; it is clearly written in the rulebook, so I wonder why competitors never seem to read the rulebook? Judges that are tested and carded by associations like the AQHA, NRCHA, NRCHA, etc. are all trained and tested on very specific guidelines for every class.
Today it is much better than the old days when every judge placed the class according to his or her own personal vision. When we showed our horses in the past we never knew exactly how to present them to advantage unless we knew the judge personally.
Some liked it fast, some liked it slow, some with a high profile some with a low profile. Today it’s different, with the rulebooks and testing procedures so specific and standard in every class, the judges are obligated to adhere to precise standards. It’s these standards, as explained in the rulebooks, that every competitor should learn.
Reining
Take for example the reining class. The first judging rule in the book states that a reining horse must be “willingly guided.” This is the first rule and the most important.
With regard to stops, the judge must, according to the rules, judge the entire maneuver, not just the stop itself. That maneuver starts from the first stride of the last rollback all the way around the arena, through the approach to the stop, the stop itself, and then the rollback.
So often the exhibitor thinks that the stop is everything, when in fact it is only one-third of the maneuver. They run fast and slide a mile and expect a good score, but this is not so if the horse did not “guide willingly” and under control through the entire maneuver.
Often, including this last weekend in Italy and probably next weekend in BC, I see horses that are not being guided around the end of the arena by the rider. They are just staying on pattern because the arena walls are holding them in. When they line out to go to the stop, the horse charges off and the rider just goes along with him; there is no control, only run and stop, with no middle gear.
A very poor approach plus a good stop plus a poor roll back equals a very poor score! On the score sheet this looks like (-1) + (+1/2) + (-1/2) = -1. Good stop, but poor score.
Showmanship
In showmanship, the competitor needs simply to read the AQHA or APHA rulebook, then read the pattern and do exactly what the pattern says and how the rulebook tells you to do it. “Exactly” is the key word. Do it more correctly than the others and you beat them – very simple.
The most common mistake is rushing through the pattern and not finishing one part before going onto the next. It is not a race. Correct first, then if it perfectly correct, then speed increases the degree of difficulty (just like it says in the rulebook) and if the run is still correct, the score will be higher. Correct is first – always.
If the pattern calls for a 180-degree turn, the winner of that part of the pattern is the horse that plants his pivot foot and turns 180 degrees without moving that foot an inch forward or back. The turn needs to be exactly 180, not 190 or 175. That means a straight-line departure with all four feet, exactly lined up with the horses’ previous position.
It is so easy to see the competitor who has spent hours practicing, training, and working with their horse at home and who has not. It makes it easy to find the winner.
Trail
Trail is also judged mathematically. This weekend we had a lope over poles on an arc. An exhibitor whose horse did not guide very well loped over the end of the poles and the horse’s hind foot missed crossing over the final pole altogether. One foot outside the pole equals an automatic three-point penalty. The judge has no choice; it is what the rulebook demands.
The rider was astonished as it was enough to take him from winning the class to not being placed at all. If he had read the rulebook he might have tried harder to ride over the centre of the pole rather than its’ end.
Every rulebook has some reference to the attitude of the horse. I am always surprised by the pinny-eared, tail-switching, sour horses that people bring to horse shows. How can they expect to win anything if the horse obviously hates every minute of it? They are obviously practicing the wrong things at home.
Every program needs to be based on keeping the show horse happy and self-confident. The judges are simply following the rulebook and finding a winner out of that group of horses that day. If you follow the rulebook and look like you are having fun, you will certainly have success.
Lyle Jackson has spent 30 years in the Quarter Horse industry as a trainer and 15 years as a judge. He holds judges cards for the NRCHA, AQHA, NRHA (FEI), and APHA and has judged international shows in Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Czech Republic, Australia, United States, Canada, and France. Lyle has shown in almost every western discipline, and now specializes in reining and working cow horse. He currently sits on the professional horseman’s committee for the American Quarter Horse Association, is on the board of directors of the NRHA, and the executive board of Reining Canada.
