JUDGING THE PERFORMANCE HORSE

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JUDGING THE PERFORMANCE HORSE
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Possible Classes

• Western Pleasure
• Hunter Under Saddle
• Hunter Hack
• Reining
• Western Riding
• Hunt Seat Equitation
• Western Horsemanship
• Trail

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Western Pleasure

• Western Pleasure is one of the most popular show
  events.
• A top western pleasure horse should be as the
  name implies
• a pleasure to ride

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Western Pleasure

• Contestants compete simultaneously (all at once)
• Travel around the perimeter of the arena
• Walk, jog and lope
• Both directions of the arena.

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Criteria used to evaluate performance horses

• Functional correctness
• Attitude and Manners
• Willingness
• Broke ness
• Quality of movement
• Head set and head carriage

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Functional correctness

• Follows all the rules!
• Horse picks up and maintains proper gait
• Each gait is correct and true
• Proper upward and downward transitions
• Maintaining a proper rate of speed
• Soundness

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Quality of Movement

• Gaits must be performed with proper cadence and
  balance
• Softness
• Horse maintains a level top line
• Horse maintains a collected frame

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Attitude and Manners

• Ask the question Which horse is the steadies,
  brokest, most consistent horse in the class?
• Willingness/Broke-ness
• Attitude and temperament
• Prompt response with no resistance

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Head set and head carriage

• Head Carriage how the neck is carried in
  relationship to the body.
• The poll must be level or above the withers.
• Head set how the head hangs off the neck.
• The face must be at or in front of the vertical.

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Head Set Head Carriage
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A good pleasure horse

• has a free-flowing stride of reasonable length
• in keeping with his conformation
• should cover a reasonable amount of ground with
  little effort

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A good pleasure horse

• should have a balanced, flowing motion
• will exhibit correct gaits that are of proper
  cadence

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A good pleasure horse

• should carry his head and neck in a relaxed,
  natural position
• poll level with or slightly above the level of
  the withers
• face should be level with his nose slightly in
  front of the vertical
• has a bright expression with his ears alert

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A good pleasure horse

• should be shown on a loose rein
• should be responsive and smooth in transitions
• should extend in the same flowing motion

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Terminology the Walk

• The walk is a natural, flat footed, four beat
  gait.
• The horse must move straight and true at the
  walk.
• The walk must be alert
• The stride must be of a reasonable length in
  keeping with the size of the horse

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Terminology the Jog

• A smooth, ground covering two beat diagonal gait
• Horse works from one pair of diagonals to the
  other pair
• Square, balanced, straight forward movement of
  feet
• Extended jog shows same smoothness

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Terminology the Lope

• The lope is an easy rhythmical three beat gait
• Horses moving to left should be on left lead
• Horses moving to right should be on right lead
• Natural stride should appear relaxed and smooth
• Ridden at a speed that is a natural way of going

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Disqualification

• Changing hands on reins
• More than index finger between reins
• Head too low for more than five strides

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Faults to be scored according to severity

• Excessive speed
• Wrong lead
• Breaking gait

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Faults to be scored according to severity

• Excessive slowness, loss of forward momentum
• Failure to take the appropriate gait when called
  for
• Touching horse or saddle with free hand

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Faults to be scored according to severity

• Head carried too high
• Head carried too low
• Over flexing or straining neck in head carriage
  so the nose is carried behind the vertical

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Faults to be scored according to severity

• Excessive nosing out
• Opening mouth excessively
• Stumbling
• Use of spurs forward of the cinch

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Faults to be scored according to severity

• Sullen, dull, lethargic, emaciated, drawn or
  overly tired
• Quick, choppy or pony strided
• Reins draped to the point that light contact is
  not maintained
• Tail excessive movement/ dead tail