BY SHELBY VOHSEN, JUNIOR JOURNALIST
Each year at the Ford AQHYA World Championship Show, judging teams compete. We caught up with John Pipkin, Ph.D., an AQHA judge and animal science professor, to find out how to correctly judge conformation classes.
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| Forty teams from across the country competed in the judging contest. |
When you judge a horse’s conformation, where do you start?
“The first thing is to know the parts of the horse. Before a judge can evaluate an entire horse, he needs to know the various parts of the horse. There are specific standards that are described within the (AQHA) rulebook, and then there are also other sources of information from various breed organization as well as videotapes and things of that nature. Pretty consistently among breeds, the standard categories of how you evaluate conformation are typically broken into four categories -- balance, structural correctness, quality/breed type/sex characteristics and muscling, with balance being the most important."
If you are judging a class and there are two equal horses, what is the deciding factor for placing them?
“You go back to those four categories, which are our guide. The other thing which you must consider is how big the differences are between those horses in the categories. That is where the judgment comes into play: evaluating how big the differences are between the categories and where the greatest advantages are. Then you try to take the horse that has the most advantages and the most important areas of the categories.”
Do you have any tips for people who want to improve their judging skills?
“Be simplistic. A person can get over-complicated very fast. Don’t be negative; learn to be positive. Look for the good rather than focusing on the bad. Try to make sure you’re evaluating the whole picture; don’t just look at one particular category -- look at the overall picture.”
Do you have any other comments?
“What conformation literally means is form to function. So then we’re looking for horses that can perform based upon their formed function. Movement is a big consideration; it is actually part of the judging criteria that is directly connected to balance and structure. The other consideration (it’s now in the rulebook) is manners and literally how that horse presents itself or is presented.”
