AQHA horse-showing judges will be asking for lengthened strides in western pleasure classes in 2013.

In your 2013 western pleasure classes, expect your AQHA judges to ask for lengthened strides in all gaits – walk, jog and lope. That comes straight from the AQHA Judges Seminar December 11-14, 2012, in Dallas, according to AQHA Senior Director of Judges Alex Ross.

“We want exhibitors to start preparing because they are likely to see this throughout the year,” Alex says.

“We’ve requested lengthened strides at (AQHA World Championship shows) for several years, and now we are asking judges to call for the lengthened stride at weekend shows if needed.”

The term “lengthened stride” was suggested by top-100 western pleasure riders attending the western pleasure seminar in 2008 at AQHA in Amarillo.

Every year, AQHA conducts a continuing education seminar limited to approved AQHA judges. The annual seminar covers a different set of classes each year; the 2012 sessions covered western pleasure, ranch pleasure, halter, performance halter and reining.

AQHA Professional Horsemen and judges David Dellin of Purcell, Oklahoma, and Gary Trubee of Fredericktown, Ohio, conducted the western pleasure educational sessions. Here’s a little of what they said:

Judgment Call

“We’ve made the judges well aware that in our (AQHA) rulebook (Rule SHW 408), it states that they can ask for a lengthening of stride at both the walk and the lope, in addition to already asking for the moderate extension of the jog,” David says.

“We’re asking them to ask for that when judges see horses with interrupted walks – a walk with pauses or breaks in the four-beat-rhythm – indistinct jogs lacking correctness or cadence, or horses loping with negative characteristics such as head bobbing, dwelling on the outside front leg or lacking cadence.”

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