From the Judge’s Chair

From the Judge’s Chair

by | May 30, 2023 | Horsemanship, Judging

I was looking back on some past articles that Bill Enk (NRCHA Director of Judges and teller of great stories) has written for the NRCHA magazine and saw this. It’s so well written about the importance of reading a cow, that I thought I’d share it.

From the Judge’s Chair May 2022
 

Bill Enk on reading a cow
 

Everyone has their strengths and weakness when it comes to showing reined cow horses. Reading a cow accurately is a must. Sometimes luck is involved by drawing a perfect cow, but when that doesn’t happen, the showman that reads the cow the best has a definite advantage.
 

In the herd work, most people pick the cattle they want to work before they walk down to the herd. They have watched the cattle when the herd was settled and usually watch each rider before them cut so they know which cattle have been used and which are still fresh. Having a good idea about the behavior of the cattle to be cut goes a long way toward earning a good score.
 

Cutting in the center of the pen and staying even on both sides of a cow are a must for credit to be earned. How far to go by the cow to control and turn him is part of reading a cow accurately. Go too far, you might lose working advantage: don’t go far enough, the cow might not set up and turn, causing your help or the fence to turn him- no credit there.
 

The exhibitors that read the cow best know when they can play offense and when to play defense. If the cow is aggressively trying to get back to the herd, it’s time to be on the defensive. If the animal lets you control him in the middle of the pen, it’s time to play offense.
 

When the cow enters the arena during the cow work, the experienced showman starts sizing up the animal immediately. Some cattle head better than others, some are numb and won’t head at all, and some are a combination of both. The idea while boxing is to get on both sides of the cow to stop and turn it so when you get to the head on the fence, the animal will honor your horse and turn.
 

How long the animal is boxed has a lot to do with how the rest of the fence work plays out. Boxing too long takes too much juice out of the cow and the finish of the run is weakened. If you don’t box enough on an active animal, you risk not being able to catch and turn it on the fence and have a tough time finishing in control on the circles.
 

The #1 priority when judging the cow work is: Did the horse have position and control during the entire work? If they did, and had at least an average degree of difficulty, they should earn a good score. Reading the cow accurately allows the exhibitor to be consistent throughout the work and finish strong. Remember, using good judgement on a cow always gives you a fighting chance.
 

Thank you Bill Enk!
NRCHA Dir of Judges

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NCHA Rein Adjusting Rules

NCHA Rein Adjusting Rules

by | May 16, 2023 | Horsemanship

The NCHA is a little more forgiving than the other associations regarding adjusting your reins while showing, but also a bit more complex. Here goes:

3 point penalties are assessed if:

If the rider uses 2 hands to turn his horse around with the cow. 

If 2 hands are used on the bridle reins to stop the horse then the rider allows the horse to turn on its own. 

If 2 hands are used on the bridle reins while stopping the horse for a legal quit.  

After quitting a cow legally, the rider uses 2 hands on the reins to turn his horse around or does so while in the herd. 

If the cutter drops a bridle rein and uses his free hand to retrieve it while cutting the cow or working the cow it’s also a 3 pt penalty.

No penalty:

However, if the rider uses his free hand to retrieve the rein after legally quitting the cow and stopped their horse, there is no penalty. 

The rider can untangle the reins with no penalty if it’s done after a legal quit and before entering the body of the herd, or while riding through the herd, the rider can place a second hand on the reins, behind the rein hand, to straighten them.  

If after the rider turns to make a cut and stops in the body of the herd, a second hand can also be used to straighten the reins with no penalty.  

Cheating the reins (ie making one shorter while only having the index finger between them) while cutting a cow is common practice and legal.  

Be sure to practice adjusting your reins correctly at home until you get very dexterous with them!

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Rein Adjusting Rules Clarification for split reins NRHA and AQHA in the straight reining

Rein Adjusting Rules Clarification for split reins NRHA and AQHA in the straight reining

by | Apr 18, 2023 | Reining

There was an NRHA rule change in 2017, which allows the rein slack – the excess rein not between the bit and rein hand – to be rearranged while the horse is moving on the pattern, not only when stopped within the pattern as was previously demanded. As an NRHA alliance partner, the change was also adopted by AQHA.

Before the rein rule was modified, the old rule stated that the horse had to be sitting still anywhere on the pattern before you could fix your reins.

You can only fix the slack by reaching behind your rein hand. The correcting/free hand can have no contact with the reins between the bridle bit and rein hand. However, you can move behind by reaching under or over the hand holding your reins.

This was changed because some horses won’t run straight to a stop or won’t stay in the circles if your reins aren’t adjusted correctly. Rein ends don’t weigh enough to always stay where they should be during a reining run, but they do weigh enough to send mixed messages to a horse when out of place.

If a rein flips and creates a kink where it attaches to the bit, the only solution is a quick prayer and a shake of the rein hand. Riders are still not allowed to touch the rein between the hand and the bit, because that is considered 2 hands on the reins.

We should all practice reinsmanship at home so we have the confidence to make flawless, covert corrections while on pattern in the show pen.

One of the most common issues riders experience is the ability to adjust their rein length with split reins. With only the index finger between the reins, loosening the hand and feeding additional rein will extend the rein length. To shorten the reins, the rider must creep the fingers (hand down) towards the horse’s head (both are legal).

You can’t pull slack with your off hand when showing with split reins. (ie you can straighten the slack end of the reins, but you can’t hold it and pull to adjust rein length.)

Make sure your reins are short enough that your horse can’t step on them, because if your reins are dragging the ground, to the point where it is dangerous and a horse could step on the slack, you can be scored a zero.

A good rule of thumb is when the rider lifts the rein hand toward their body connection can be made with the horse’s mouth. But when your hand is down, there is a comfortable loose slack.

“Cheating” the inside rein or making it shorter is a showmanship trick to help a horse who doesn’t steer as well as you’d like and is legal as long as only the index finger is between the reins.

Another NRHA rule involves dropping a rein. A rein dropped while in motion is scored zero and the judges excuse the exhibitor from the arena.

If the rein is dropped and the horse is standing still, however, the rider can pick up the rein with the rein hand only with no penalty.

Be sure to practice adjusting your reins correctly at home until you get very dexterous with them!

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Rein Adjusting Rules

Rein Adjusting Rules

by | Mar 21, 2023 | Reining

I get asked frequently to clarify adjusting reins legally while showing in romal reins vs split reins, since the current rulings in NRHA, NCHA and NRCHA are different, I’ll cover each in the next 3 articles.

Rein Adjusting Rules Clarification when using a romal in the NRCHA and AQHA Cow horse classes

The rider must use romal reins when showing a cow horse (in cow horse reining, boxing and fence work unless showing in the snaffle or hackamore.) 

The rider is not allowed to have any fingers between the reins, and they must be held in a fist position with the thumb up. 

Reins can be shortened or lengthened by pulling or pushing respectively on your romal with your non-rein hand while the horse is in motion as long as the reins are held in a legal manner (i.e. no fingers between them unless you’re in the two rein). 

The non-rein hand is not allowed to touch the reins or a zero will be applied. 

The keeper that attaches your romal to your reins is considered part of the romal so can be touched with your non-rein hand. The non-rein hand should hold the romal, but in the herd work and boxing, the romal and reins can be held in one hand allowing the other hand to be free to hold the saddle horn.

One rein can be “cheated” that is shortened by “slipping” a rein, however if seen by the judge, a 1 point penalty will be applied.

Be sure to practice adjusting your reins correctly at home until you get very dexterous with them!

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My Favorite Article on Collection

My Favorite Article on Collection

by | Feb 8, 2023 | Horsemanship

I’ve never seen collection explained so well. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did!

A horse’s weight is distributed over its haunches and forehand. However, because of the heavy head and neck, the horse carries a greater amount of its weight on its forehand. The horse’s center of gravity is located slightly above and behind its elbow (blue dot).

There is a belief that the front feet push against the ground in order to push the forehand upward and the body weight backward but by watching correctly ridden horses and horse playing in nature, it becomes clear that this is not the case.

To improve the horse’s balance we need to encourage the horse to carry more of its weight with its haunches or, in other words, engage its haunches.

Equilibrium is maintained by controlling
the body’s center of
gravity over its base of support.

KEY FACTORS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO ENGAGEMENT OF THE HAUNCHES

The bending of the hind legs – When the horse is working in a relaxed manner and his back is elastically pulsating, the driving aids can be used to encourage pure impulsive ground covering strides, which in turn cause deeper bending of the joints of the hind legs.

The shortening of the base of support – In the beginning of the horse’s training, gymnastic exercises are used that increase the bending of the horse’s spine and the bending of one hind leg at a time. These exercises would include work on a single track such as circles, serpentines and other bent lines. Later, greater bending is developed with the use of shoulder fore and shoulder in. In more advanced training, exercises that bend both hind legs (stops, transitions, backing) are used. These gymnastic exercises encourage the more deeply bending hind legs to work further forward toward the horse’s center of gravity and shorten the horse’s base of support. This causes the forward impulse of the hind legs to travel through the horse’s body and act on the forehand in a more forward/upward direction. In addition, the shortening of the horse’s base of support shifts more weight to the haunches. 

The lowering of the spine posteriorly – As the horse’s strength develops, the deeper bending of the hind legs causes the spine, which naturally slopes downward from the hips to base of the neck, to lower posteriorly. In exceptionally strong and well-conformed horses the point of the hip (green dot) can eventually lower to a point below the joint between the first thoracic vertebra (back) and last cervical (neck) vertebra (yellow dot). Because the horse’s spine is somewhat rigid, the horse’s haunches do not ‘sit’ independently from the forehand. Instead, this rearward spinal tilt shifts more weight onto the haunches. Bending of the haunches to this degree requires an extraordinary amount of strength and suppleness.

The elastic tension of the lifter muscles – As the horse’s muscles alternately flex and relax more deeply, the bending of the hind legs and shortening of the base of support create an elastic tension (not to be confused with tightness or constriction) in the muscles and ligaments that connect the haunches to the forehand. This elastic tension helps to lighten the forehand in a kind of cantilever action.

Natural raising of the neck – The elastic tension of the muscles and ligaments bring the horse’s neck up into a graceful arch, with the poll balancing as the highest point and the head hanging naturally by gravity from an elegant upward/forward reaching neck. 

The horse naturally raises its mouth to a point approximately level with its hip and its face approaches the vertical. This naturally offered posture allows the rein aids to travel freely through each vertebra, through the pelvis, down to the hind pastern joints.  With the neck stretched upward and the poll carried poised like a ballet dancer, the heavy weight of the head and neck is shifted toward the haunches, making it easier for the back to lift the forehand and the hind legs to carry the weight.

In the piaffe, the combined center of gravity
of the horse and rider is directly over the center
of the horse’s base of support.

Relaxing and bending is the key factor that enables the hind legs to bend more deeply under the increased weight. Engagement becomes easier for the horse as it gets stronger and its balance is refined. As the horse willingly relaxes into the work it will naturally offer to bend its hind legs as much as it is able. As the horse relaxes and settles onto its hind legs, the hips and stifles bend even further. Again, this shortens the base of support and further lowers the spine posteriorly and naturally continues to draw the head and neck into a position that enhances the horse’s balance. The haunches are methodically strengthened until the forehand can be easily lifted completely off of the ground and the horse can momentarily settle onto its hind legs.

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