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Breaking news!  Judges are humans!  That’s right, judges are humans.  And you know what?  Humans make mistakes.  So, if judges are humans, and humans make mistakes, then, OH NO, judges must make mistakes!

This may be a revelation to many of you.  Some competitors hold judges in such high regard that they think we are immune to such lowly human characteristics such as making errors.  But we do.  It’s a sin of course, and we NEVER like making mistakes.  But they do happen.  And all we can usually do is acknowledge that it happened and that we’ll work harder to try to prevent those same mistakes from happening again.

At one show, a relatively large open show.  The show had a reining class.  While I’m well versed with reining it’s not often that I get to judge this class at an open shows.  I’m always excited to see it on the show bill.  At this show, there were at least a dozen competitors.  A few local trainers brought their barns with them for practice.  It was great!

It was also pretty apparent that most of the riders were simply schooling.  They were over spinning, blowing the pattern, two handing, everything.  But there were a couple of riders that were actually showing.  One rider came in and was doing a good job that I was able to score.  When the spins started I zoned out for half a second.  That half a second was long enough for me to lose count in her spins.  Had she done 3 spins or 4?  That moment of realization was horrifying for me.  I literally froze for a second, replaying the spins over and over in my head trying to figure out if she did 3 or 4. 

I couldn’t do it, couldn’t remember. 

OK.  When in doubt you give the nod to the rider.  So I scored the ride and didn’t disqualify the rider. 

When the score was announced you would have thought I had made a major blunder at the NRHA futurity with thousands of dollars and a title on the line.  The other exhibitors were furious.  Apparently, they all thought the rider had only completed 3 spins instead of the required 4.  Lesson learned for me.  NEVER zone out during reining spins!

Like so many other things in the show ring, people think the clothes they wear is what will make them win.  Silver on the saddle, fake tail, fancy show clothes, etc – it’s all unimportant.  I have never met a single judge that said they placed rider one over rider two because they had more silver on their saddle, or that their shirt had more crystals on it. 

But you also can’t enter the ring looking like you just left the barn after cleaning 20 stalls.  Cleanliness and appropriateness are tops on my list.  The right outfit can enhance or detract from your performance.  The best shiniest prettiest outfit in the world will not cover up the fact that you can’t get your horse on the correct lead.  And if you look like you just rolled in the manure before you entered the ring, it may be so distracting that I might notice that you’re a good rider.  Plus, it’s unprofessional and disrespectful. 

Riders should take pride in their appearance.  They are auditioning.  Yes, showing is about the abilities, but you have to showcase those abilities to get the most bang for your buck.  If your hat looks like you left in in the horse trailer – with your horse in it, stomping all over it – then you’re going to give the appearance that you don’t care what anyone thinks.  But if you’re paying for my opinion, shouldn’t you care what I think?  And if you show up like that I’m going to think you don’t care – and if you don’t care, why should I?

gohorseshow.com had an interesting article about whether or not exhibitors should get patterns ahead of time.  They had comments from judges and trainers both and they received mixed comments.  I’m in the camp that patterns should not be provided ahead of time. 

I know many exhibitors like to get patterns ahead of time.  They seem to think it helps them somehow.  I think the opposite.  When I judge a show where patterns are given out ahead of time the riders and horses do a worse job in completing the pattern.  Their horses anticipate.  The riders overthink.  It rarely flows and it almost always looks rushed. 

Let’s face it, it can be a lot of pressure to try to memorize a pattern in a few short hours.  But that is really all a good rider should need to do.  Remember the pieces in the right order.  When you are at a show, it is not the right time to be training your horse how to do a 360, or for a rider to learn what 4 steps back feels like.  Anything a judge asks for in a pattern should already be known. 

Anticipation of each piece is a big problem for the horses.  When riders practice a pattern over and over, which is what they tend to do when they get patterns early, the horses learn the pattern.  And then they think they know the pattern better than the rider.  When they are supposed to stop at cone B, they often stop a step or two short of cone B.  Or they start the pivot at cone C before the rider asks.   All of which will look choppy and rushed. 

In the article online a few people had commented that it isn’t much different than reiners having the standard patterns.  But I do think it’s different.  Very different.  Reiners never practice “the pattern”.  They practice the parts of patterns.  Which is what horsemanship, equitation, and showmanship competitors should do.  Let’s face it, there aren’t that many different manuevers that can be called for.  Circles, serpentines, back ups, pivots of varying degrees. Throw in some lead changes and stops and you’ve got your patterns.

Many people get tangled around the design of their silver show halter.  What they should really be concerned with is getting the right fit with their halter.  First thing you see when looking at a halter on a horse in a halter class is how it fits.  Yet the first thing people buying a show halter see is how much silver or what color the leather is.  I don’t notice either of those things unless it detracts from the appearance of the horse, though nothing detracts more than an ill fitting halter.

Here are my views on getting the best “performance” out of your show halter.

The halter should fit snug but not tight against the horse’s head.  No part of it should be loose or hanging.  The throat should fit close to the horse’s throatlatch but not tight.  The cheek pieces should be short enough so that noseband sits approximately one finger below the bone on the facial crest.  Adjustments to the crown of the halter can help in the placement of the noseband.  Mare sized halters have shorter cheek pieces so if you  have a gelding with a small head you may want to look at mare sized halters.

All parts of the halter should fit flat against your horse’s head.  If the crown has to be tightened so that the excess strap is long or flapping, have a harness maker or professional leather worker shorten the straps. 

The noseband should be perpendicular to the plane of your horse’s face.  If it angles it can distort the look of your horse’s head. 

Color is a concern only in the way that it shouldn’t detract for your horse’s head, but enhance it.  I have yet to see a light colored halter enhance a horse’s facial features.  Medium oil, dark oil, cherry, or mahogany are all much better choices regardless of the color of your horse.

Silver should be understated, not over the top.  Less is more sometimes.  If your horse has a nice head, is appropriately feminine or masculine, with a good eye, well formed ears, and your horse has good breed characteristics, then you’d want less silver.  If your horse is rather plain, a bit more silver may help as long as it’s not too over the top.

As to the quality, a better quality halter is always the better pick regardless of whether there is silver or not.  A low quality halter covered in silver is always a worse choice than a quality plain leather halter.  The reason is simple – it’s all in the fit.  Quality halters tend to fit better.  If you’re on a budget choose that quality plain leather halter.  Cheap silver halters (generally those under $50 that you can find on ebay and similar sites) have silver pieces that look more like tin or aluminum that has been stamped.  Another excellent option is to buy used.  You can get excellent quality used halters for a fraction of the cost of new.  There is a big plus with the used halter too – it’s already broken in so that the leather is easier to form to your horse’s head.

Hi everyone, I had to change servers and in the process I’ve managed to loose most of my prior postings.  I’m going to try to recover them but I can’t promise anything.

I guess the good news is that it wasn’t up very long so there’s not a lot to recreate. 

So, let’s start over.  I’ll try to post even more often than before and hopefully you’ll still find this blog to be informative and interesting.