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Ask the Judge: Rod Miller and Craig Sutter answer FAQs

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Advice from NRHA Judge Rod Miller

I've been scoring zeros for all maneuvers in the show pen, and I keep getting told that my show pen maneuvers should have been plusses. I feel like I'm right in between a zero and a plus half: what can I do to tip the balance and turn a zero to a plus half in the show pen?

I would suggest that to make your in between 0 and plus 1/2 maneuvers a plus half, you first need to look at the NRHA judges tape (available through the National Reining Horse Association: www.nrha.com). Make sure that the quality of your manueuver is as good as the examples on that tape that illustrate a plus half maneuver. The specifics of how to make your horse perform at that level should be asked of your trainer.

At a recent show, I saw a horse put in a really great stop and the judge minused the manuever. What gives?

Without seeing the actual maneuver it is hard to give specifics but you need to remember that the judge is taking more into consideration when marking the stop than the actual stop, which is the last part of the maneuver.

Consider the stop at the end of Pattern 9. The judge will start evaluating this stop from the time the horse has exited the left roll back. The stop maneuver consists of the way the horse guides around then end of the pen, the way they approach the stop, and finally how well they stop.

The horse in question may not have guided very well around the end and may have been charging at the stop. This takes away from the section entitled "A. General" in the NRHA Handbook on page 71 of the 2004 Handbook. It reads, in part: "To rein a horse is not only to guide him, but also to control his every movement. The best reined horse should be willingly guided or controlled with little or no apparent resistance and dictated to completely. Any movement on his own must be considered a lack of control."

I've seen a lot of horses stop with their heads and neck somewhat elevated, while others drop their heads and necks into the stop. I get the impression that the horses with the lower heads get better scores. Am I right? What's the rationale behind this?

NRHA judges are looking for the stop to be as described in the 2004 NHRA Handbook on page 109, which states: "Stops are the act of slowing the horse from a lope to a stop position by bringing the hind legs under the horse in a locked position sliding on the hind feet. The horse should enter the stop position by bending the back, bringing the hind legs further under the body while maintaining forward motion and ground contact and cadence with front legs. Throughout the stop, the horse should continue in a straight line while maintaining ground contact with the hind feet."

Nothing in that discription discusses head position. So I would suggest that it is something else besides head position that is giving you the impression that one style marks better than an other.

Show-ring advice from NRHA judge Craig Sutter

Question: In your experience, what are the most common and most easily avoidable penalties that you see riders get in the show pen? Could you describe how they happen, what they cost in terms of points, and how you (if you were showing) would try to avoid them?

The most avoidable show-ring penalties stem from "pilot error" and result entirely from the rider's actions--and/or failure to plan. They are completely preventable and can often make the difference between winning a class and not getting a paycheck. In this column, I'll explain the penalties and give you strategies to make sure they don't happen to you.

Error #1: What the judge sees:

On a pattern that features rundowns and stops along the sides of the arena, the rider starts the rundown. Instead of running in a straight line, the horse angles closer and closer to the wall and fails to stay the required 20 feet off the wall.

What the Rulebook says:

Judges must assess a 1/2-point penalty when the rider comes within 20 feet of the wall while approaching a stop.

Why the penalty?

eining horses must be well guided; experienced show horses tend to angle toward the wall because they anticipate the change of direction associated with the rollback toward the wall. When horses take the initiative on their own and go to the wall, they are not willingly guided and demonstrate that the rider has lost control.

What to do?

Even in small pens, you should never need to get that close to the wall.
To keep this from happening to you, change your practice habits at home, in your warm up, and in your show-ring strategy.

At home and in the show pen, prepare for your rundown while you're still on the short side of the arena: make your turn onto the long side just after you cross the center line. As you turn from the short side of the arena onto the long side, square the corner so that your horse is straight when he runs straight to the stop (if he's running straight, he'll be less likely to veer to the wall).

In practice, you might also want to angle your horse slightly to the inside of the pen.

Before you show, develop a plan to help you run down and stop well away from the wall: find markers to help keep you more than 20 feet off the rail, such as a gate or a banner, and ride straight toward that marker.

Error #2: What the judge sees:

The horse starts a sliding stop before he completely passes the designated marker

What the Rulebook says:

Judges must assess a 2-point penalty when the horse initiates a stop position prior to the marker.

Why the penalty?

The run down should be feature a gradual building of speed, with the increase dictated by the rider. Stopping before the horse is complexly past the marker is considered a loss of control and failure of the horse to be willingly guided.

What to do?

Never look at the marker you are trying to get past; if you look at it, you'll tend to stop before you're completely past it. Use as much of the pen for your approach as you can: focus on gradually building speed and stopping when everything feels right (remember that you have a lot of time to make the stop). Other strategies will help: If the pattern calls for a stop past the center marker, look up and ride to the last marker; make your stop there. For stops past the last marker, ride like you are fencing--think about going to the end of the pen and stopping there. You won't miss markers and you will probably get your horse shown much better.

Error #3: What the judge sees:

The rider goes off pattern, whether it's spinning five times or getting large fast and small slow circles out of order.

What the Rulebook says:
All maneuvers must be performed as described in the pattern.

Why the penalty?
While the other errors we've discussed reduce the score, going off pattern gets you a zero--and you can't recover from that.

What to do?
Always review the pattern before you show--never assume you know the pattern. I like to do a mental ride through before I show. I visualize the pattern repeatedly until I am comfortable with the entire pattern.

Some competitors don't focus on left or right--instead, they note that the first set of circles is toward the hill or some other marker. Others put a rubber band on a finger to let them know in which direction the first maneuver is performed. A few other hints may help: on run in patterns, the first set of spins is always to the right, away from the judge. These patterns also have the back up near the start of the pattern, so remember never to back up at the end of the pattern.