Transcript Judging Western Pleasure

JUDGING THE PERFORMANCE
HORSE
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Possible Classes
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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
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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
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