The American Quarter Horse Association recently announce significant changes to the Performance Halter rules as they apply to the World Championship Show and now the Youth World Show and the Select World Show. Those rules are being met with overwhelming support from Performance Horse enthusiasts.

The American Quarter Horse Association announced on Dec. 31, a significant change to the performance halter rules as they apply to the World Championship Show, effective immediately for the 2018 World Show.

A few months later, leaders released changes to the Youth World Championship Show and the Select World Championship Show, to take effect with the 2019 events.

The rule change is major, and has been met with overwhelming support from performance horse enthusiasts, who were hungry for modification to the status quo of performance halter in recent years. The new rule requires horses shown in a Performance Halter class at the World Show to also qualify and show in a performance class at the show.

“The AQHA Executive Committee decided it was important to modify the qualification requirements for the performance halter classes to maintain the integrity of the original intent of the classes,” said Pete Kyle, AQHA chief show officer, in the official AQHA press release explaining the new rules.

Since the first World Shows to include performance halter in 2007, it had become common for exhibitors to quit showing their performance horses under saddle to fit them (translation: put weight on) for the Performance Halter class at their world show once qualified.

Criticisms of the class voiced were mostly that actual performance horses were at a disadvantage in the judging, if the criteria for performance halter was the same as that for aged Halter classes.

Horses with predominately halter bloodlines that perhaps were not competing successfully against the horses winning in the aged Halter classes were shown in performance events that perhaps required minimal athletic ability to achieve the ten points required for performance halter eligibility.

A few years ago, the rules were modified to require Performance Halter horses, shown at the World Shows, to also earn 10 performance points, within the qualifying period for the respective World Show. This was a step to maintain  the performance aspect of the class.

The original Performance Halter rules allowed for Showmanship to count as a performance class in Amateur and Youth competition. Technically, since the class is judged on the handler, it is a performance class. But the desire of the members supporting Performance Halter to consider the performance on the horse’s part, either under saddle or in front of a driving cart, removed Showmanship from eligibility.

Exempt from the performance class ruling are racehorses which have recorded two speed indexes of 80 or higher, electronically timed. These horses will be eligible to compete in open or amateur performance halter at the Open World Show, perpetually, as long as they qualify to compete in the performance halter class during the show’s qualifying period. This will apply also to both the Select World Show and the Youth World Show.

The new Performance Halter rule was put into effect immediately for the 2018 AQHA World Championship Show, for the Amateur and Open. With the announcement made Dec. 31, exhibitors still had seven months before the qualifying deadline for the 2018 show.

The changes to the Select World Championship Show for Amateur Select exhibitors and the Ford Youth World Championship Show were made effective for the 2019 shows, since they had very little time before their respective qualifying periods ended when the rule change was made.

The Select World qualifying period runs June 1 to May 31 and the Youth World national qualifying period is May 1 to April 30.

Charlie Cole

AQHA Professional Horseman, Charlie Cole was one of the outspoken performance exhibitors lobbying for the change.

“I think it’s definitely a step in the right direction,” he said. “This new rule puts performance halter back to where the original intent of the class was. I, myself, and other performance people, were not going to show in it, or will not show in it, until it was fixed.”

“I feel strongly that the judges should evaluate the performance  horses on performance standards, and in present performance conditions,” he emphasized.

Horses vying for Superhorse or All Around Amateur honors routinely compete in their performance events along with performance halter at the World Show. They have not taken the time off between qualifying and showing to have artificial weight on just for the Halter class.

Social media comments on the posts announcing the new rule have brought favorable comments of support by people feeling the same way. Proponents of performance halter and its original concept applaud the change, hoping it will put the emphasis on a performing horse and conformation. More form to function.

Straight from the AQHA Rulebook, halter is described in Rule SHW350. HALTER CLASSES. A Halter class is defined as a class where the horse is judged based upon its conformation. The purpose of the class is to preserve American Quarter Horse type by selecting well-mannered individuals in order of their resemblance to the breed ideal and that are the most positive combination of balance, structural correctness, and movement with appropriate breed and sex characteristics and adequate muscling. Performance Halter eligible horses must  still earn a minimum of 10 riding points in the appropriate division during the qualifying period, but they can enter and show in either a Level 2 or Level 3 performance class (except Showmanship).

For the Lucas Oil World Show, in Level 3, of the 16 junior performance classes, only four require more than 10 points to qualify: Heading, Heeling, Trail and Hunter Under Saddle. Of the 16 senior classes, only five require more than 10 points to qualify: Tie-Down Roping, Heading, Heeling, Western Riding and Trail. None of the all age open classes require more than 10 points. In Level 2, only Senior Heeling and Senior Trail require more than 10 points to qualify.

Pete Kyle

For the Amateur division, of the 25 performance classes in Level 3, only seven of them require more than 10 points to qualify. None of the Amateur Level 2 classes require more than 10 points.

For the Select World Show 2018 qualifying period, Western Pleasure was the only class requiring more than 10 points to qualify, at 12.5. This was actually a two-point reduction from 2017 qualifying points.

For the Youth World Show 2018 qualifying period, six of the performance classes require more than 10 points to nationally qualify in Level 3: Barrel Racing, Trail, Horsemanship, Western Pleasure, Hunter Under Saddle and Equitation. In Level 2, only Horsemanship, Western Pleasure and Hunter Under Saddle require more than 10 points.

If, for any reason, the horse does not compete in a performance class at the respective division at the World Show (Open Select or Youth), the horse will be disqualified from the Performance Halter and will not be counted as an entry in that class. Any awards won in the Performance Halter must be relinquished. Entry fees are non-refundable.