Multiple World and Congress Champion trainer and AQHA judge Stephanie Lynn sat down with GoHorseShow and discussed this year’s 15-18 Youth Showmanship Congress pattern. We thought it would be beneficial to our readers to hear from an AQHA Judge, whose customers have had success in this class, how the patterns should be executed.
Stephanie Lynn, AQHA Professional Horseman, trainer, coach and judge, has dedicated her life to horses. She has been training and showing horses for over 35 years coaching World, Congress and National Champions along the way. Stephanie Lynn has judged all the major events offered by AQHA, NSBA and APHA including their respective World Championship Shows. Lynn was just awarded the 2014 AQHA Congress Championship in the Senior Pleasure Driving. Lynn is also known as one of our main feature writers and a popular presence on our site.
As far as why GoHorseShow chose the 15-18 Youth Showmanship Pattern, we wanted to breakdown the harder patterns because the novice patterns tend to have many of the same maneuvers. We would also like to thank HorseShowPatterns.com for letting us post the pattern in the article as well as provide a link to the pattern. Please print out the pattern and follow along or click here to download the pattern.
Let’s see what Stephanie Lynn has to say!
Youth Showmanship 15-18 Breakdown as seen by Stephanie Lynn
1) Start at A. Walk past B and stop. Starting at A, the first thing the judges will look for is that you are at A! Do not start 5, 10 or 15 feet away from A. Be ready at A. You start with a walk and, looking ahead, it may be a long walk so there is no reason to start back from the cone. Keep in mind that you must always look at what comes next before you can plan the current maneuver. Our next maneuver is a 405 degree turn. To prepare for that turn, you must stop far enough from B to be able to turn smoothly but not so far that you cannot make the trot turn at C. The biggest mistake you can make in your stop is to stop too short. You will need to stop at B 1 1/2 horse lengths beyond the cone. This gives your horse enough room to turn and leaves enough room for you to be in the correct position throughout the turn.
At first glance this pattern seems pretty straight forward. However, as you start looking at each piece you see that inaccuracy at one point is compounded at the next maneuver. Look over the pattern several times in its entirety before breaking down the components in your mind. Once you have done that, you are ready to start planning how to perform each maneuver.
1) Start at A. Walk past B and stop. Starting at A, the first thing the judges will look for is that you are at A! Do not start 5, 10 or 15 feet away from A. Be ready at A. You start with a walk and, looking ahead, it may be a long walk so there is no reason to start back from the cone. Keep in mind that you must always look at what comes next before you can plan the current maneuver. Our next maneuver is a 405 degree turn. To prepare for that turn, you must stop far enough from B to be able to turn smoothly but not so far that you cannot make the trot turn at C. The biggest mistake you can make in your stop is to stop too short. You will need to stop at B 1 1/2 horse lengths beyond the cone. This gives your horse enough room to turn and leaves enough room for you to be in the correct position throughout the turn.
2) Perform a 405 degree turn. The turn sets up the line you will trot to C. Make sure that you stop from the walk before executing your turn. The exact degrees of rotation you turn is not as important as the point at which you stop. Concentrate on the line you want to exit on and plan your turn around that. When practicing, pay attention to where you want that line to be. Practice with the trot turn at C being both tight, loose and in the middle to ensure you are prepared for any way the cone is set. Judges will be looking for the handler who smoothly executes a turn where the horse stays down on the pivot leg and the handler stays in the correct position for their horse during the entire turn. Ideally, the handler should be able to feel where the horse’s body is positioned throughout the entire turn without excessive looking or study. Judges are looking for handlers with feel and a connection to the horse – this includes a soft eye. It would be easier to correct an overturn than and under turn – take caution and do not stop short. When your turn is complete, make sure that you show a completion of your turn before beginning the trot.
3) Extended trot to and around C. Again looking ahead, this turns into is a long maneuver. You extend the trot for a long distance to and around C and then to and around D. Establishing a good pace here takes practice. So too, does holding your body tall without letting your shoulders twist from left to right as you run. Your trot needs to be extended enough to show a definite slowing when the time comes but not so fast that you cannot maintain the pace throughout. The highest degree of difficulty will be to maintain the same pace through the entire extended trot. The pace that will be measured is your horses. Your legs will naturally slow around the C cone as you turn to the left. Ideally, your horse will hold a soft arc to the left from his poll to his croup. If your horse is going too fast or is resisting, the hip could end up drifting to the outside of the turn here. Finding the line to exit on sets up the next maneuver. In the best laid out pattern the distance between maintained by horse and handler will be equal at both C & D.
4) Continue extended trot to and around D until pattern line is crossed. Regular trot to judge. From the previous maneuver, you have set yourself up to maintain equal distance from C and D. This becomes the “pattern line” that dictates the point at which you begin a regular trot. Gratefully, you do two left turns because at this point you have been running for quite a distance and you are probably getting winded. The pace here should be the same pace as what you started with. Do not slow or weaken. The turn at D is a tighter turn because it is for 3/4 of a circle. An easy error to make would be to cut the last quarter of the three short. If you do, you will not be in line to trot directly to the judge. It is imperative that you plan ahead and this is no place to cut corners. Going deep into the second and third quarter of this maneuver will make getting on line to the judge easier. The horse should hold a soft arc in his or her body around the entire trot around D. When you begin your line to the judge, hold the extended trot until your feet cross the “pattern line” recently established. To earn the most credit, you and your horse should simultaneously slow to a normal trot. Some of the challenge throughout this long extended trot is keeping good posture the entire time. As you tire, it may become difficult to hold your posture straight without swinging your shoulders side to side. When you return to a regular trot, keep the same pace right up to your stop. Do not dribble down to a stop. Keep the pace the same right up to the judge stopping with just a touch more than an arm’s length in front of your horse’s nose and the judge.
5) Stop and set up for inspection. Once stopped, set up quickly. This is a class about showing your horse at halter! Set your horse up squarely – front to back and side to side. A quick poor set up does not earn brownie points. Judges want the horses to be set up where they can plainly see the horse’s conformation, even though the horse’s conformation is not being judged here in this class. With that in mind, keep the horse’s head and neck at a position that best shows off the horse’s natural carriage. A head too low is not attractive and should not be encouraged. Pulling your horse’s head down here will lower your score dramatically. When you step back to show your horse, hold your posture tall. After all that running you may naturally want to slacken here. Keeping a smile on your face may make catching your air a bit easier. Judges want an exhibitor who looks like they are enjoying their horse and the performance but they are not looking for a doll-like painted smile. Try to let your look be natural and pleasant. Show your pride through your facial expression and posture. Move smoothly from one side to the other without verbal or visible cues to your horse to maintain the stance.
6) When dismissed, back two horse lengths. From practice, you should know approximately how many steps two horse lengths is for you and your horse. You do not need to run backwards here. The back up should be smooth and it should flow freely with each step being approximately the same pace. Keeping the same distance between you and the horse from start to finish earns the most merit. Make sure you are not in front of your horse or that you do not give the illusion of being in front of your horse. This will cause you to drop at least one level in your final score, from the 80’s to the 70’s, for instance. This is the setup for the final maneuver. When and where you stop your back sets up the horse for the final turn and exit from the pattern. Watch the footfall and stop exactly where in practice, you have determined the horse’s hind feet need to be for the best 270. It is less important that you complete exactly nine steps making your back exactly two horse lengths than it is to be set up perfectly for your 270. If you are one footfall short of two horse lengths it will not matter in your score. However, if when you do your final maneuver, your horse is out of position, it will be reflected with a lowered score. Determine ahead of time exactly where you need your horse’s hind feet to stop to set up for the final maneuver of the pattern.
7) Perform a 270 degree turn. Pattern is over. Exit at a trot. From the previous maneuver’s discussion, you should be set up perfectly for the 270. Showing a completion of one maneuver, the back to the next maneuver, the 270 is important. Don’t let up here, you are not yet done. This is an important area to read the pattern carefully. While the words say the pattern is over after you perform the 270, it is followed up by “Exit at a trot”. Judges will not mark their final score until they see you trot. Your pattern will not really be over until you get into the trot. You may be disqualified if you do not trot here at the end. Get it in your head – exit at a trot.
Lastly, have fun! Is there anyplace else you would rather be than showing your horse? Do your homework, then take a big breath, step into the limelight and go for it! Good Luck!
