GoHorseShow Reports from AQHA Judges Seminar

AQHA just held their judges seminar this past Monday and Tuesday, December 9th and 10th, 2013 at the Sheraton Hotel in Irving, Texas. The weather was a huge factor and many people were unable to make it due to cancelled flights and/or treacherous road conditions. Despite the weather, many judges made it and the seminar was packed full of sessions both days discussing the halter, ranch pleasure, western pleasure, and reining. 

Clinician Tim Finkenbinder taught the halter seminar while Bill Enk and Sam Rose discussed the ranch pleasure. David Dellin and Gary Trubee discussed the western pleasure and Rick Weaver and Joe Carter provided instruction for the reining.

At the start of the seminar, AQHA Executive Vice President Don Treadway addressed the judges and discussed the state of the horse industry. While he stated that the membership, registrations are down, it appears that the numbers may be leveling out. Treadway discussed AQHA’s plan of getting more people involved with AQHA including the new Take Me Riding program to get more kids involved as well as the first Novice Championship Cattle Show that is going to be held in Oklahoma City in April.

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Check out some of the bullet points below from the seminar.

WESTERN PLEASURE SEMINAR

• The western pleasure at times has been given a bad rap and bad press. While, some of it is warranted, Dellin and Trubee stated that not all of it has been fair. They stated there has been a decline in entries in this class because we have manufactured a product that many people don’t want. There is an opportunity now for judges to help dictate the way this class is perceived and help it move forward in a positive direction.

• Dellin stated that it is important for trainers to have a more positive attitude because if they always point out the negative and complain about things being “political” then their clients are going to develop the same impressions and attitudes which are not helpful for the industry. We need more people to “play” in the western pleasure because it helps build everything else–many of the pleasure horses go on and become the elite trail and western riders.

• Dellin states there should be a hierarchy in judging this class. 1) The most important should be Correctness. 2) Quality of the horse 3) Degree of Difficulty. Dellin stated that the current trend now is for degree of difficulty to trump the first two–quality and correctness–which is one of the main reasons we are having issues with this class. Degree of difficulty involves the ability to maintain the quality and correctness of gait at a more pleasurable pace.

• The current trend is to take middle of the range horses and try to increase the degree of difficulty while sacrificing correctness and quality. The judges must start rewarding correctness first. Dellin used the example of the spins in reining–you must first do the correct number (4 spins) before you can increase the difficulty, because if you don’t do the correct number then it is a moot point if your spins are the fastest. 

• Dellin and Trubee showed the judges attending the seminar videos of the Senior Western Pleasure from the 2000 AQHA World Show and the 2012 AQHA World Show. It was interesting to compare the two classes. The horses in the 2000 video were quicker in movement yet they appeared to be more pleasant in their appearance and the exhibitors showed them with more cadence. While in the 2012 video, the horses legs were slower and the degree of difficulty was higher, yet many of the horses lost some of their cadence in the jog and lope. It was also interesting to see that the stands were full to watch the 2000 finals while there were very few people watching the 2012 finals. 

• Dellin and Trubee stressed that correctness must be considered first before judging the quality and degree of difficulty. Trubee said that one of the top western pleasure trainers mentioned that he always showed in the western pleasure, “what I got, not what I wished I had.” Don’t try to make your horse into something he can’t physically handle or perform. There are only a select few that can do all three judging requirements at the highest level.

• Dellin stated that the stock-type pleasure judging requirements should be the same for NSBA, AQHA, APHA and that everyone should follow the same rules. The horses need to be exhibited in the same manner at the weekend shows versus the major shows and the judges need to have the same standard.

• Dellin and Trubee stated that there were three ways that judges could help exhibitors perform the class correctly. 1) Limit the class sizes–split the classes if needed. They compared it to driving in Amarillo vs Dallas. In Amarillo you can take the foot off the break because there is more space whereas in Dallas there is constant braking to keep behind traffic. That can be compared to riding on the rail in the pleasure classes. Judges need to give the exhibitors enough room to show their horses to the best of their ability. 2) Mixing up the gait calls–i.e. starting to the right, loping first, etc. 3) Lengthening the gaits at the walk and lope to help the horses perform the gaits correctly. Dellin told GoHorseShow that at the APHA World Show that in one of the classes they immediately started off lengthening the stride at the walk–that set the tone for the rest of the show. The exhibitors knew right at the beginning how they needed to show their horses and Dellin stated that they didn’t have to ask for a lengthening of lope once during the entire show because everyone was following the rules.

• This class is highly popular and has been an overwhelming success

• The purpose of the class is to show off the attitude, versatility and movement of an ideal working ranch horse

• The ideal horses should be going someplace and be smooth to ride

• There should be no drape in the reins in this class and a three point penalty will be taken for each gait the exhibitor is performing in that fashion

• There are no penalties for ticks and hits on the poles–rather the judges will take them into consideration while marking their maneuver scores.

• For the lead change–you have three strides to get your lead. If you are stilll out of lead on the fourth stride, a three point out of lead penalty will be assessed.

• If someone excludes a maneuver or includes an extra maneuver, then, the exhibitor can’t place above someone that does the pattern correctly. The judge should start their score at 50 instead of 70 to make sure they are getting these exhibitors at the bottom of their cards.

• The horses need to be ground covering but cadence is more important than speed

• The riders are allowed to post and hold onto the horn during this class

HALTER SEMINAR

• Tim Finkenbinder discussed that the halter is one of the few classes left that are subjective and based on personal opinion. However, there are rules and standards that need to be followed. He told the judges to let the faults find you.

• Finkenbinder stressed to the judges that how the horses track and their movement is very important and that the judges need to place more emphasis on this part of the class. He states that the cadence of the jog is important.

• Also, exhibitors need to be aware of the halter pattern and how they are supposed to turn at a trot around the cone. Many judges expressed their frustration that many exhibitors do not follow the correct pattern.

• Finkenbinder stated that the exhibitors are responsible to know the rules of the class and whether they do the pattern correctly should be considered in how they place the horses.

• Manners are also important and he said that he usually gives the exhibitor three chances to set their horses up correctly and if they are unable to show their horse in a manner where the judge can evaluate the horse, then they should be severely penalized.

• Finkenbinder said that the profiles should tell the tale and not to award the extremes.

• Bill Ink also came into this seminar to discuss the judges’ responsibilities at the show. He mentioned four traits of winners that we thought would be beneficial to our readers. 1) Ability to learn from mistakes. You either win something or learn something. 2) Control your own thinking 3) Be Optimistic about future 4) Do not be effected by critics.