Pattern 49: Breed Show Amateur/Youth

I had heard "rumors" this year about how "hot" the coneless patterns were going to be. This is the first time our barn has run into them. My clients enjoyed them, but found them quite challenging. So here's my take and the difficulties we encountered.

Findings:

• A few of my students had a difficult time figuring out where to break to the walk from the trot, most were about 2 steps too far (you should be even with the judge). Also make sure you are transitioning that trot to walk and NOT trot stop walk...
• Make sure you walk far enough "north" before you start turning on your circle, if not, you'll encounter backing problems later in your pattern.
• You should begin your trot as you cross your walk path.
• Stop with your hip at the judge and pivot 1 3/4's.
• Now depending on how close you are to the judge you'll need to back...but save yourself some room to perform the 180 and the set up... which proved to be problematic in the class too many...

Have fun practicing...

This years show findings...

...Ok, so you're missing the patterns and I just quite frankly, am out of time to computer draw them...sorry... busy barn, busy judging schedule...and I haven't had a day off in a least 3 + Weeks...LOL...so...no pattern THIS time, BUT since we're on the road I'll give you a taste in what we are finding...

Lots of Trot to Walk transitions this year...so start practicing those.
Spins and lots of them...more than 360's...last weeks pattern required 3 spins.

These are the "in" things apparently this year...

Ok, back to business...happy practicing!

Basics: YOUR Body Positioning for Walk/Trot

Unsure where your body needs to be when walking/trotting your horse? Answer your shoulder should be even with your horse's throat latch.

Below the exhibitor is too far behind her horse...
Below the exhibitor is too far in front of her horse...

Below the exhibitor is just right (sounds like the 3 bears doesn't it? LOL). Although I can tell her horse is starting to lag behind because she's using the pull/release method of getting her horse to speed up just a bit by where her hand is next to his nose (waaay in front).

Thank you to the 2 Janet's and Elaine for being our demo's!

Pattern 48 : Breed Show Amateur/Youth

Findings
Don't let this pattern fool you either, straight lines are difficult!

• START directly in line with the judge, trot quickly and be mindful of your stop at cone 2, a popped hip will spell disaster for your back.
• Back at least 4 or 5 steps, you want to be sure you're going to clear BOTH cones 1 and cone 2 on your spin
• Perform your 360, possibly pulling your horse forward. Be sure not to over or under spin
• Walk briskly to the judge and stop 1 1/2 arms length away
• Setup for inspection, since no instructions are given, upon dismissal perform a 90 and walk away.

Pattern 47: Breed Show Novice

Findings
Don't be fooled by first glances, this pattern is challenging. Straight lines are VERY difficult! Our judge made it extra challenging by placing cone 2 VERY close to the pivot line, you had to be almost on top of the cone to make your hip inline with the judge.

• Be ready at cone 1, walk briskly to cone 2
• Stop with your horse's hip at cone 2 (this is something to really practice ... this is a make/break part of your pattern). TIP, count how many steps YOU take when you pass the judge until you need to stop...this will help in the showpen
• Stop and perform your 90, do not over or under pivot
• Trot to cone 2, stop at your horse's nose. Be mindful of your stop, you do NOT want a kicked out hip because when you back it needs to be PER.FECTLY straight...
• Back at LEAST 4 steps
• Walk to judge and stop with 1 1/2 arms length away
• Set up for inspection
• Upon dismissal perform a 90 and walk away
  

Basics: YOUR Body Position, BACKING

You thought you had a nice pattern, but didn't even place, here could be the reason.

Standing directly in front of your horse to back will disqualify you on most judges cards. This is a dangerous position to put yourself in, IF your horse spooks you could be run over, or if your horse rears you could be pummelled.
Below our exhibitor is in a much better position safety wise, she's slightly in front of her horse so that she can see where to guide her horse and she's off to the side so if something should spook her horse she can quickly move off to the right.

Pattern 45: Advanced

Findings:

• Begin at cone 1 with the same distance you'll end up at cone 3
• Trot a serpentine, you'll probably need to cut close to cone 2 to make the distance to cone 3 (the shorter the distance between the cones, the more difficult this will become)
• Stop at the nose and perform a 360, do not over or under pivot as your back will be crooked
• Back until your hip is even with the judge and perform a 270, making sure that your horse is pivoting on the correct foot (you may have to pull your horse slightly forward)
• Walk to judge, stop with 1 1/2 arms length away and set up for inspection
• Upon dismissal perform a 90 and walk away

Pattern 46: Intermediate

Findings:

• Depending on the distance between the cones this could be a really difficult pattern
• Start at cone 1 the same distance you will end at cone 3...you'll need to leave yourself enough room to perform your 180
• Trot from cone 1 to cone 3, you can cut close (and will probably need to) at cone 2 so you can leave yourself enough room at cone 3 for your pivot.
• Stop at the nose, perform your 180, STAYING on the correct side of the cone (my students needed to practice the serpentine several times before hitting the right spot so they were on the correct side of the cone)
• Trot to cone 2, stopping with hip at judge
• Perform your 90, don't over or under spin and walk to judge
• Stopping with 1 1/2 arms length away
• Setup for inspection, upon dismissal back 4, perform a 90 and trot away

Come back tomorrow for a ramped up, advanced version of this pattern

Basics: Pivot to Backing Problems

The pattern calls for a pivot of some sort and then a back, but you back crooked? Why, you did you pivot, but your horse still backed crooked...here's 2 scenario's WHY.

In this first photo our exhibitor has over spun, look at her horse's feet, they are not aligned front to back, so if she backs at this point (her horse's hip is canted to the right), her horse will back crookedly to the right...
In our 2nd photo our horse has NOT completed (or under spun) his pivot, and if she asks him to back at this point he'll back crooked to the left

To avoid either of these problems, as you are completing the your pivot (the last step or two), look up to WHERE it is you are GOING to go, this way you can either continue that next step or stop to prevent an over pivot. Having someone watch you also helps... Happy Practicing!

Pattern 44: Advanced

Findings:
This is the next level up from yesterdays pattern

• Be ready at cone 1 and trot to cone 2, stopping at nose/shoulder, make sure your stop is quick and clean (your horse should stop with it's hind end), perform your 360
• EXTEND your trot to cone 3, there should be NO QUESTION that this is a quicker, and more extended trot from your trot from cone 1 to cone 2...those that nail this are going to be impressive.
• Perform your 90 (don't over or under pivot)..as yesterday I found most my clients over pivoted, which made their backs crooked!
• Back straight and smoothly, stopping when your horse's hip is at the judge.
• Perform a 270, again don't over or under pivot
• Walk to judge and stop and setup for inspection
• Since there is no directions after dimissal, perform a 90 and walk away.

Pattern 43: Intermediate

Findings:

• At cone 1, be prepared to trot right off
• At cone 2, make sure you transition is smooth, your horse shouldn't stop, shouldn't be jerky, it should look like and easy smooth transition to the walk.
• Walk your horse briskly to cone 3 and stop with your horse's nose in the middle of 3.
• Perform your 90, do not over or under pivot (most of my students OVER pivoted).
• Back until your horse's hip is at the judge (I personally stood just OFF of the cone, so my students need to LOOK for the judge and not at cone 2).
• Perform your 270 and possibly pull your horse forward so it maintains that pivot foot
• Walk to judge, look pleasant.
• This pattern has no directions for dismissal...so just do a 90 pivot and walk away.

Tomorrow we're going to RAMP it up with another VERSION of this pattern

Chain Length Photos

Ok, here's the photos I promised for chain length...below shows 3 links...we could probably go one more link easily with this horse if we wanted...
Sorry about the grainy picture...grey day and my student was a ways off...anyway... see the slack she has left in her lead? She can run her hand up and down her lead if she needs control...you can't do that with too much chain...

Below she is walking towards us, again see the slack she has in her lead? For this particular horse, she can go no tighter...why? At some point in this horse's career someone has done the "smack behind" as they trotted (and psst, yes, we know she has a whip in hand, it's not used for his forward motion of walking/trotting), so he learned how to trot sideways with his handler, this is something we battle continuously...if you need your horse to go quicker, you should do the pull/release method of tugging your lead FORWARD and releasing when your horse is trotting/walking next to you. If you SMACK them behind yourself as your walking/trotting your horse will try and get away from your smack and travel crooked... This exhibitor has to be very conscientious about how she even holds her hands, pull him too close, he travels crooked, too much slack and he wanders... he's a work in progress :) Anyway, I digress.... Her slack and chain length are appropriate for HER situation. She can move her hand up and down the lead as she does her crossovers. I would say her lead from hand to hand is a touch long, but this was a quick practice and we were concentrating on chain length and slack...

Thank you Janet and Jack for being my examples!

Chain Length - How long should it REALLY be?

Chain length - the mystery question...is really pretty simple. Now you KNOW you can't TOUCH the chain, however you can touch the leather lead all you want... I tell my clients that they need to have 3 or 4 links showing from their halter to their leather lead, you can move your hand up and down the leather lead, but you CAN'T move your hand up and down the chain...right?

How MUCH lead should you use? Depends on your individual situation. You need to have it loose enough so that you're not pulling your horse's head towards your body as you walk or trot (your horse will then start stopping with it's hip kicked out and/or walk/trot next to you canted). However, not so loose that your horse will wander away (and this is not necessarily true for those "broke" showmanship horses).

By having only 3 or 4 links, you have great control IF YOU NEED it...BUT if you have more than 4 links, if you need control, you may not HAVE it.... You can move your hand up and down the leather lead to give yourself and your horse more or less control and tension.

For those that watch the showmanship videos with the extremely loose lead, I'm not going to fault you in the showpen as long as everything goes PER.FECTLY.... kind of like a flying change in horsemanship...it better be PERFECT or you'll get counted down big time!

So chain length, 3 or 4 links...leather lead length...depends...how's that for a "clear as mud" answer....

IDEALLY your horse should move off of your body language and you SHOULD be able to show shankless...IDEALLY.... but we all live in the real world and MOST horses and exhibitors don't have that kind of control...

I'll try and get some photos of my clients in the near future showing correct and incorrect lead length for those of you that are visual...until then...practice, practice, practice!

The Nipper

I continually get the question "How do you cure a Nipper/Biter?". Unfortunately my answer is always the same...there IS no cure...you can calm it down, but once a horse figures out what a "game" nipping is, they are hard to deter. Here's some things we've tried with limited success.

FIRST and FOREMOST - the best CURE IS PREVENTION, you can prevent nipping/biting by NEVER EVER feeding your horse by hand! Let me repeat that, NEVER EVER feeding your horse by hand! If you feel the need to give your horse a little snack/treat/dinner, stick it in his feed pan/bucket, this way your horse is not associating your HAND with FOOD!

Now for those horses that weren't that fortunate (I find this especially true with horses that had a halter career prior to their showmanship career) you can do some things to minimize it:

First have someone watch you, is your chain to long? Are you inadvertantly running/walking etc. with your hands or chain to close to your horse's mouth, making you or your hands a convenient target? When you do your crossovers is your chain hanging so that your horse enjoys playing with it? ONCE you've established that YOU're NOT the problem, here's some ideas to help you calm the nipping/biting down. Now remember these are things I've TRIED and have had SOME success, only you know your horse and YOUR SITUATION and this might not work for YOUR circumstances...with that said...

IS your horse young? Young horses are busy minded (typically), so if you've got a young one, change up your routine a little and be sure if there is any nipping, etc.. starting that you move their head away from you immediately. They need to know this is NOT a game.

Is your horse nervous? If you have a nervous horse, biting/nipping could be a sign of frustration, try lunging your horse prior to showing, also try showing it in halter first for a couple of trial runs...the more your horse sees the inside of a showpen, the more comfortable it will be in it.

Does your horse have to pee? Make sure your horse has a little "quiet" time in it's stall/trailer before show time.

SOME horses know the difference between warm up and show pen (we have one in the barn). After my client's horse chewed on her through two showmanship classes, I sent her back in for 2 halter classes, with the instruction that any nipping/biting/chewing needs to receive a well placed smack on the nose...and make it count. She didn't make it two steps to the walk to the judges in halter and she got her horse good...the judges giggled (they saw the alligator (her horse) had it coming from the previous showmanship classes), she made it to the trot phase and had to smack her horse again... basically she schooled in the class... she went back for the 2nd halter class and he was a gentleman...NOW we search out halter class before showmanship if we feel we need to schooling for him. You may also need to school in your showmanship class to get your point across. MOST judges understand what you are doing, but it's nice if you school and then apologize to the judge...so keep that in mind if your needing to do some schooling.

As far as nails/pins/cigarettes held in your hand and you "getting" back at your horse...it's a quick, temporary solution that doesn't yield long term results and typically it's stemming for the exhibitor's too long chain or inability to run without teasing the horse with the chain.

I'm not saying that a nipper/biter is a lost cause. I showed one to the Top Ten spot at the All American Quarter Horse Congress and most recently my client (above) was the Circuit Champ with her nipper...so yes they can be shown, you just have to be very thoughtful about the horse's mouth area and train YOURSELF as well as to minimize YOUR situation.

Pattern 27, Advanced

This is one from my archives that we practiced before Congress in 2008...happy practicing!

Findings:

• Trotting from cone 1, 1/2 way to cone 2 and stop, wait at least a breath, then continue on.
• Make sure your horse keeps up with you going around cone 2 and as you approach the south side of cone 2, make a mental note where the judge is standing (glance, but do not turn your head), it is critical that you land your horse dead on with the judge.
• Stop, back one horse length (approximately 5 steps), quickly, smoothly and straight.
• You back right into your 540, so at this point you MIGHT have to pull your horse slightly forward so that it keeps it weight on the correct pivot foot.
• Towards the end of your 540, look up at the judge so you don't over/under pivot.
• Walk to judge...SMILE... and set up for inspection.
• Perform your pull turn, glance at judge and trot away.

Pivot Problems: Dropped Shoulder

Ok, so you've determined it's NOT you, it's your horse (see previous blog post to make sure YOU'RE not the reason your horse is dropping it's shoulder)... and how do you KNOW your horse is dropping it's shoulder? If your horse bends it's neck in the direction of your pivot (see OBVIOUS below), then your horse is dropping it's shoulder. Typically this is your horse escaping from work. Below is Riley (the horse) and he IS a notorious shoulder dropper, our exhibitor below is also demonstrating incorrect body positioning, which needed to be done so I could get our photo... look how far Riley (the horse) has his shoulder dropped, his head is far beyond his pivot foot. ICK!
To correct this you'll need a dressage whip...it's just the right length for correction behind your back.
Below is Charlotte (exhibitor) with Riley (horse) demonstrating while standing still, the correct method to correct her horse. I have her correct behind her back so that Riley doesn't see it coming and she doesn't change her body position.
You can ALSO have the whip in front of you, but it eleminates that element of surprise. Please note, you're not going to BEAT your horse, you are merely tapping your horse on the shoulder, that should be plenty of surprise.
When Charlotte (our exhibitor) notices that Riley is bending his neck, she taps him on the shoulder with the dressage whip, this brings his attention back to her and helps straighten out his neck. He'll still be pivoting while she's correcting, do NOT stop and correct, keep that pivot momentum!

Photo below. Here we are in motion. Riley came to us dropping his shoulder...we've been working on this about a year, at first he dropped his shoulder immediately into the pivot, currently we've got him worked through a 270. So it's coming, it's just not an overnight fix. See how straight he is now? She's tapped him and got his attention back to her. When using this method, I would start in small increments, do a 90, when you've mastered that, do a 180, etc...
Please note, while this method has helped several horses I have trained, however it may not work for you and your horse, you'll need to be the one to determine if this method will work for your situation.

*My sincere thanks to Charlotte and Lord Whata Bonanza (Riley) for their demostration!*

Pattern #41: Breed Show Youth and Amateur

Ok, so here's the pattern with the super pivot! This is the pattern for which you needed to PRACTICE your pivots for! So let's break this down...shall we?

• Be ready at cone 1, YOU should be waiting on the judge, NOT the other way around.
• Walk briskly and pick up your trot 1/2 way to cone 2...I noticed many exhibitors picked up the trot almost 3/4's of the way there...this presented the problem of not having an even pace for their stop beyond cone 2.
• About 1/2 the exhibitors landed their hip on the judge (I was able to stand in alignment with the judge, so I was really able to look through the horse's ears to see the judges hat)
• Do not over or under pivot if you are right on with the judge...make sure you look up (or at least glance) as you are closing your pivot, so many overpivoted.
• Look up, have a pleasant look to the judge and trot off...stopping with 1 1/2 arms length away from the judge.
• Set up (be very careful setting up, set up crooked and so will you back...crooked), wait for inspection and dismissal.
• Back and perform your 630 (TIP: having troubling figuring out how much to turn... subtract 360 from 630 = 270...so that's 1 3/4's spin). Make sure, since your horse just backed, that you've got a little forward momentum and that it's NOT dropping it's shoulder. Keeping an even circle and even pace will help. Do NOT overspin.
• Trot briskly away.
  

Pivot Problems...could it be YOU?

So you've got pivot problems...your horse will hold the pivot "most" of the time, but not "all" of the time, could the problem be....YOU?

I have asked one of my clients with her green showmanship horse to demonstrate a little for us (and you'll have to excuse my novice photography). In this first photo please examine our exhibitor and her horse...they are riddled with problems...

• The exhibitor's shoulder has dropped back
• The horse's neck is bent and thus dropping it's shoulder
• The exhibitor's hand is leading towards the nose instead of the cheek

This exhibitor can help herself by aligning her shoulders so that they are parallel to her horse's head. What she is doing is encouraging too MUCH forward momentum, so her horse is not actually pivoting and she's encouraging the horse to bend it's neck.

In the photo below, the exhibitor has aligned her shoulders so her shoulders and body are parallel to the horse and see what happened with the horse's neck? It straightened, no more dropped shoulder! Her hands are now in the correct position. The only thing I would correct here is that her horse is just a touch too far away (the horse is pivoting faster than the exhibitor can keep up with), however we're still playing with chain length, so we're aware of this...

Other things to consider:

• Speed of your pivot, pivot too slow and it's difficult to keep one foot on the ground (try it...hold ONE of your feet on the ground and spin sl.ow.ly...now spin a little faster...which is easier? the moderately faster, now spin faster...takes more balance doesn't it...keep that in mind when you ask your horse to pivot).
• Make sure YOUR circle is even...a horse can't hold it's pivot if YOU are making an oval... Think of your horse's pivot foot as the stable point of a compass and you're the pencil.

Horse STILL dropping it's shoulder even if your body position is correct? In the next few days I'll have another tutorial with a "fix"...be but aware, it's not a quick fix, it'll take quite some practicing.

*My sincere thanks to Elaine and Certain Fortune for being our examples!*

Pattern 42: Breed Show Novice

This was one of the Novice patterns from our last show. Here's what pitfalls we found:

• Be ready to go at cone 2, walk briskly, but not so briskly your horse begins to trot.
• Stop beyond cone 2, with your horse's hip square with the judge
• Spin, making sure you don't over or under spin, those that did had a tendency to have a crooked line to the judge (it was VERY obvious)
• Turn on your charm, look up, look pleasant, you are approaching the person you want to impress!
• Set up for inspection, when this judge inspected, he stopped near the tail EVERY. TIME... he tripped up about 1/2 the first 2 classes...so be prepared for anything in inspection!
• After dismissal, those that stopped straight and had good setups, had straight backs, those that stopped with a hip kicked out or set up their horse crookedly, had crooked backs...
• 270, since we just backed, some horses picked up their pivot foot because THEIR exhibitors did not pull them slightly forward to keep their weight off of the incorrect spin foot (the correct foot is the horse's RIGHT HIND FOOT), complete your spin.
• Trot away briskly, w/o hesitation.

Sticky footing...

We've just returned from our latest horse show and the showgrounds we were at, well, is still fairly new and they are still getting the footing right ... BUT, we were "stuck" with sticky footing... we had clay type dirt sticking to our boot heels and our horses hooves...anytime we were in the arena, the horses looked like they had snowballs in their feet, what helped...lubrication...we used cooking spray, others used WD-40 and someone else used silicone spray...it HELPED...so if you've got sticking footing...go grab something greasy, spray it on the bottom of the hoof...it did help the dirt not stick and if it did, it was easier to get out...

I'll have the patterns up for this show fairly quickly, while fresh in my mind... nothing horribly hard, just precision, precision, precision...and practice doing 2 spins in a row...it'll help!

Patterns Link

If you like to keep up with the latest patterns on the horse show circuit, keep up with Mark Harrell Horse shows. Here's a link to the March to the Arch patterns (for the whole show, so beyond showmanship). I took a quick peek and they are challenging...I've done one or two with our clients before...I personally think they are fun, especially for those that are seasoned showmanshippers. Anyway, if you follow Mark Harrel Horse Shows, they typically put up their patterns on line for each show, just go to the calendar, go to the show and click on pattern booklet. I will warn you that they don't keep those pattern links up forever...typically just around the showtime, so save it or print it for later practice and keep checking back! Happy practicing!

Well, it's been about a year...

...wow, my life was a whirlwind last year, personally, professionally and this blog just got away from me...though I'm glad I left it up, as I see by the numbers it's been visited a time or two (wink)! I'm hoping it's been helpful to several. So, what have "I" been up to, well, I put on the judges hat last year and dipped my toe into THAT water and I'll give you some insights...some, I'm sure you've heard before, some I hope, will be insightful.

JUDGING

Now I know when you're showing, the judge just seems to appear, look at you with a critical eye and then disappear at days end. What you don't know is that the judge probably has a few more hours in before you on show day. We'll start with the classes, the judge needs to take into consideration the level of the show they are judging and the level of patterns they need to provide. While you are looking at a few patterns, the judge must provide ALL of the patterns. Then the judge needs to brush up on the rules for that particular association, then of course the day of, the drive (yawn and several cups of coffee later).
I want you to really know, the judge is REALLY pulling for you, we're looking for the "POSITIVE" and not the "NEGATIVE" and trust me, when I see someone getting a great "go" and then something negative happens, I'm dissapointed FOR YOU...REALLY. Most judges I know (myself included) have BEEN THERE, DONE THAT at one point or another, whether themselves or a client, so we know about being nervous or getting that disappointing go. As I tell my clients, "that's just horse showing".
Also know, we're people, just like you and we've got a limited amount of time to "judge" you and no, we don't have eyes in the backs of our head, although don't count out our hearing, because if you're have a disaster and you don't think we necessarily know about the schooling going on behind us, well, you're mistaken.

NOW I'm going to tell you about some common SHOWMANSHIP pitfalls I've seen wearing the judge's hat:

• Be ready at that first cone, I've got lots of exhibitors to watch and judge and unless you want to be showing into the night, we really need to get this show on the road!
• Look UP and at the judge as you are approaching, trust me, you're not going to find ANY money on the ground...LOL
• YOUR NUMBER, make sure it's on YOUR BACK, this is my personal pet peeve, when I have to look at YOUR butt for your number. PUT IT ON YOUR BACK, NOT YOUR BUTT! Yes I know it's an expensive outfit, and I realize you might not want holes in it, but you should have thought about that when you purchased it. I'm not looking at all your bling, I'm looking at your performance, make MY job easier by NOT searching for your number!
• HATS, buy the best you can afford, go with less outfit, but BUY A GOOD HAT and be sure it's cleaned and creased! This tells me you're a serious competitor.
• Make sure your pant leg is long enough, it's distracting watching high waters while you run.
• Look natural as you show, your crossovers should look as though you are walking into the next room...I don't recall anyone bouncing, popping, or sidling into the next room...as well as running, be in sync with your horse, it's nice polish and presentation. I don't want to see crouching while you're running, if you're out for a jog, do you crouch? Yeah, didn't think so.
• Good sportsmanship, unhappy with your placing? Trust me, the judge has ears and is listening...instead of complaining to your friends/trainer/mom/whoever, have the ring steward ASK me what was wrong with your go...I've got notes and there might be a big blunder you overlooked.
• LOOK like you're having fun, even if you mess up, it's not the end of the world and ya know, I'm SURE there's a horse show NEXT weekend SOMEWHERE.... if you can still show with a smile on your face, I'm going to remember that the rest of the day.
• Showmanship is a GREAT way to make sure that you've got a GREAT FIRST IMPRESSION for the rest of your show day. If you make a great impression on me, I'll remember you the rest of the show day.

Hopefully this gives you a little more insight on the inner workings of judging!