Let’s talk disciplines

 

Let’s talk disciplines

Why did you get your horse?  There are many different reasons to get a horse.  Some get horses to work on the farm to sort cows and access wooded areas.  Some purchase horses to trail ride and are good with just taking relaxing rides in the woods.  Other people purchase horses to show them.  There are several different disciplines that you can show in at horse shows.  Where I show horses, there are three disciplines that are shown.  There is the English riders, the Western riders, and the contesting riders.  English riders are also called hunt seat.  They wear tight pants called breeches, tall black boots, a white shirt and a suit jacket.  They show halter, rail work, patterns, and even jumping.  Western riders wear fancy clothes and spend lots of money on their clothes and equipment.  They show in halter, rail work, and patterns.  Another Western group is the Ranch riders who wear clothes that you would see on the ranch.  They are more the working group at the show.  They do not have fancy saddles or clothes.  The other discipline is contesting.  Contesting events are timed events.  You are competing against other riders but you are also trying to improve your time.  This is what I show.  I race barrels like you see at the rodeo.  I do down and back where you run down the arena, around a barrel, and back.  I do class called poles.  In poles you run down a line of six poles, weave up and back, and then run back across the timer.  This is a challenging race because it is in a limited space with lots of movement.  I run in another class called stakes.  You run around two poles making a figure eight.  The last class I run is keyhole.  This is where you run down, go between two poles, circle a head pole and go back through the two poles back to the gate.  Each of these classes require skills that I am still working on with my horse.  He has only been competing in these classes for three years.  We are still building our trust and working toward our goals.  Every show our first goal is to improve our times from the previous show and to run clean patterns.  This means not knocking down any barrels or poles.  If I do, I get five seconds added to my time.  While winning ribbons is nice, improving our personal goals is most important.

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