1 JUDGING THE PERFORMANCE HORSE

2 Possible Classes  Western Pleasure  Hunter Under Saddle  Hunter Hack  Reining  Western Riding  Hunt Seat Equitation  Western Horsemanship  Trail

3 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

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

5 Criteria used to evaluate performance horses  Functional correctness  Attitude and Manners Willingness Broke ness  Quality of movement  Head set and head carriage

6 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

7 Quality of Movement  Gaits must be performed with proper cadence and balance  Softness  Horse maintains a level top line  Horse maintains a collected frame

8 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

9 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.

10 Head SetHead Carriage

11 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

12 A good pleasure horse…  should have a balanced, flowing motion  will exhibit correct gaits that are of proper cadence

13 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

14 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

15 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

16 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

17 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

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

19 Faults to be scored according to severity  Excessive speed  Wrong lead  Breaking gait

20 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

21 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

22 Faults to be scored according to severity  Excessive nosing out  Opening mouth excessively  Stumbling  Use of spurs forward of the cinch

23 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