Take the Survey

Aqha put out a survey about offering level 2 classes at the world show. If you need a reminder, level 2 is the next step above what used to be called novice. This survey takes 5-10 minutes, and they are giving away gift cards, so try it out!!
Also, now that I have come bsck from my first show I realized something about leveling. It is not as easy as it sounds on paper. Once you totally change they system from what it used to be, alot of people are going to be confused. Like I showed in a Novice class this weekend, but were not supposed to have it anymore. So don't worry if you are confused about leveling, for the most part it will not affect you, and if it does, find my points leveling chart or look up your show record, following the link from a few posts back. If you have any questions, I will do my best to answer them but I may be confused to.
Here is the link to the survey:
World Show Survey

Show candids

Came back from my first show yesterday and came home with 12.5 points in 4 different events!! Here are some pics more blogging stuff later.

Happy Easter!!

I just wanted to wish all of my readers a Happy Easter 2014, and a happy show season! I will be going to a show starting tomorrow, so I'm not sure how much posting I will be doing the rest of the week but I will definitely do a lot next week!

Know the Rules!

An important tip before you enter into any class is to know the rules, not the big ones like no western boots in an English Class, but the small little things that might surprise you about the tack. Such as no boots in a ranch horse class, but splint boots are allowed in reining. Here are the rules for Western Horsemanship: Research your class by going to the aqha handbook at the top of the page. All of the ones you may not know are highlighted in red, look especially at the spins, make sure you do that correctly! An 8th of a turn would be like a 45 degree angle. If it takes your horse 3 crossovers to do a quarter turn an eighth would be one or two steps.

• SHW437.1 Minor faults
  • Break of gait at walk or jog/trot up to 2 strides
  • Over/under turn up to 1/8 of turn
• SHW437.2 Major faults
  • Break of gait at a lope, out of lead or missing lead for 1-2 strides
  • Not stopping within 10 feet of designated area
  • Incorrect gait or break of gait at walk or jog for more than 2 strides
  • Over turn of more than 1/8 turn, but not more than 1/4
  • Exhibitor obviously looking down to check leads
  • Failure of bottom of boot to be in contact with the pad of the stirrup
  • Head carried too high
  • Head carried too low (tip of ear below the withers)
  • Over flexing or straining neck in head carriage so the nose is carried behind the vertical
  • Excessive nosing out
• SHW437.3 Severe Faults (avoids disqualification but should be placed below other exhibitors who do not incur a severe fault) include:
  • Loss of stirrup or rein
  • Missing a lead for more than 2 strides
  • Touching horse
  • Grabbing the saddle horn or any other part of the saddle
  • Cueing with the end of the romal
  • Spurring in front of the shoulder
  • Kicking at other horses, exhibitors or judge
  • Severe disobedience or resistance by horse including, but notlimited to, rearing bucking or pawing
• SHW437.4 Disqualifications (should not be placed) include:
  • Failure by exhibitor to wear correct number in visible manner
  • Willful abuse
  • Knocking over the cone, going off pattern or working on wrong side of cone
  • Excessive schooling or training
  • Fall by horse or rider
  • Illegal use of hands on reins
  • Use of prohibited equipment
  • Failure to follow pattern correctly including failure to ever execute correct lead or gait where called for
  • Overturning more than 1/4 of prescribed turn
• SHW437.5 Faults scored according to severity, which will be cause for disqualification, except in Level 1 (Novice) amateur or Level 1 (Novice) youth classes include:
  • Head carried too low (tip of ear below the withers consistently)
  • Over flexing or straining neck in head carriage so the nose is carried behind the vertical consistently, some you may not know about

Showing Toolkit

Getting ready for your first show, or have already shown? (Lucky, my horse has been hampered down by injury and hair removal). One important thing to not forget is your papers. Here are some things that you need to have before you hit the road.

•  Horse's Registration Papers
• Your AQHA Card
• Coggins Test
• Health Certificate
• Register of Merit, if needed
• Novice Application
• Pre-Entry Forms
• Travel Certificate (if going long distances from home)

Although it may seem to be a given that you have all of these things, you need to double check. I once got although the way to Georgia and thought that I didn't have my health certificate. But luckily I had an extra one. These are just some things to think about before you go to a show.
Also handy to know is you and your horse's registration forms so that when you fill out your entry forms you don't have to double check. If your trainer is going to show your horse their AQHA Id will also be needed. If you are at a local show though they may have the ID on file.
Just some things to think about before you hit the road!
Happy Showing, CocoRL10

Novice Application

     To prove that you are eligible for the Novice or Level one divisions you need to file a license before you go to your show first show. Otherwise you will not be able to compete in any Novice Class. If you are showing multiple horses you will only need to file one application for yourself because Novice is based off of the riders points. Now that I have discovered the use of links, I will keep using them, and don't be surprised if I use 5 or 6 in the upcoming posts.
But because this is a PDF I cannot link it so I will bring you to the aqha page, scroll down to the enrollment section and click that link, and it should lead you there.
Level 1 page
***If you need to discover what level you are classified under, also click the link, and hit find your level.

Miscellaneous Horse Show Stuff

 Post 2/2
Here is some misc stuff that I thought would be helpful. The first one is a weekend show budget planner, put out by aqha to help track expenses. The following is to a website with patterns and it is the congress patterns page, it is easier to now do links so that you can choose your own classes. This website cost money to use but you can always access the Congress patterns, don't worry that they're too hard, it'll be good for you!! and most of them are extremely challenging, especially if you look up the Novice patterns.
****Sorry I can't get to that page anymore but I will copy some other patterns, and I after I show I will post all of my patterns for people to see****
Weekend Show Budget
Sorry that these patterns are hard, for the trail you could just take part of it if you didn't have enough room, together the sections aren't too bad, you could also modify them to your needs.

Horseback Riding Hours

Post 1 of 2 today:
Ever wanted to log your hours by joining the American Quarter Horse Associations' sponsored one? Well now I have made an excel worksheet that makes logging your hours easy. Either print out this sheet, or add it to your computer files. Simply mark the number of hours for each day. In addition I will be sponsoring a contest for the end of the yr that is a 100 dollar Schneider's gift card. I will send it through email so you don't have to give me your address. It is free to enter. So here is the document. Happy Riding!!!
****Please test this link**** I have found new software that I can finally link pages to so please check it out!! This one is to the AQHA horseback riding page. (the enrollment part)
AQHA Horseback Riding Program Enrollment Page

I made this one a link as well:
Horseback Riding Log Sheet

Hunter Under Saddle

Here is the newest video in my classes series. I don't have as much time now as I did in the winter to do videos every day but I will try to do one at least once a week. I will do a new post without a video every other or every two or three days. Sorry they are not as frequent,but please notify me if you really need to practice something before a show or if you had trouble with a maneuver or class at the previous show or practice session.

Back to Basics

In case you forgot what I said at the beginning of this blog, I am going to republish my first ever post. If at any time you don't think that I'm following through on this don't hesitate t contact me I will do my best to let you know what you want

Welcome to Quarter Horse Insight!

     I created this site so that people across the quarter horse industry would understand the rules to a broader perspective, I will show you demo videos, using the show me app, and by using screencast-o-matic. With both of these combined I hope to be able to give you an in depth look, at how the rules work. During the show season there was always a lot of conversation about "pointing out", and most times no one really knew what that meant or how you did point out. If you're new to showing not really sure what's going on I will be posting some videos that help you access the aqha website, and shows you the ropes.  I  am going to try to sort out the different components of the aqha rules, which can be confusing because their have been so many new changes in the past few years.  My first video is on leveling, which determines your points on a 3 yr basis.
Thanks for watching!
CocoRL10

Justin Rookie of the Year

I realized that I have glossed over this really cool award. It applies to you if this is your first year of showing Quarter Horses, or if you haven't earned (you not the horse) hasn't earned any points in non-novice divisions. You could have pointed out of the Rookie Class, and shown in an Amateur Class and still be eligible. If you didn't earn any points in an Amatuer or Youth Class you are eligible.
What the award does is recognize people starting their showing career. You will be competing against people from your province or state. If you live internationally it goes by country. Whoever gets the morst amateur or youth points in their state wins a belt buckle, justin boots, and other cool prizes. This might still be confusing to you, sorry, so I will make a bulleted list to explain it, and stuff from aqha.com.

• Who's Eligible
• AQHA members who have not earned their first point in an amateur or youth class(does not incluse novice points)
• Objective
• To get the most points 
• You only have 1 YEAR to earn those points
• After that year you are done. 
• You can win prizes like belt buckles and other things
• FACTS
• Point ranges of average winners are under 10 points but can go higher in states like Texas where lits of people show, t
• The standings are published on the members only area of aqha.com look for the Justin Rookie tab
• A National and State winner is given
• NATIONAL
• Age groups are given, 11 and under, 12-14, 15-18. 
• Amateur- 30 and under 31-49, 50 and over
• For regular there are no age groups just amateur and youth
• Here is the page from Aqha.com:

Justin/AQHA Youth & Amateur
Intermediate Awards

• 
  
  Sponsored by
  1. To be eligible for the award, the exhibitor cannot have won any AQHA points (in open, youth, or amateur) prior to the year of the award.2. The award is based on points accumulated on a one-horse/one-exhibitor basis and the horse's ownership must meet the requirements of rule 403/404 in the 2004 AQHA Official Handbook.
  3. All eligible exhibitors must hold current year Memberships in appropriate divisions (either youth or amateur).
  4. The Youth and Amateur divisions contain three categories:
   
  11 & Under
  12 - 14
  15 - 18
  30 & Under
  31 - 49
  Amateur Select*
  *Amateur Select is 50 & Over5. Upon receipt of the exhibitor's first 1/2 point or more, the exhibitor will be notified by AQHA of eligibility. In order to maintain eligibility, the exhibitor must return the notification letter with signature verifying birth date.6. All ties will be broken in the following order to receive any corporate sponsored awards:
      A. To the person winning points in the greatest number of events
      B. To the person with the greatest number of wins
      C. To the person who earned their last point first
        example: the person who earned their 50th point in March
         would win over the person who earned their 50th point in May.
  Awards: Amateurs who have never earned a point in AQHA-approved shows, and who earned the most points in the current year in their appropriate age division will receive a pair of Justin boots, a sterling silver and gold Montana Silversmiths belt buckle, and $2,000 cash. Youth winners will receive a pair of Justin boots, sterling silver and gold Montana Silversmiths belt buckle, and:
  1.)$2,000 scholarship for 11 & under and 12 - 14
  2.)$3,000 scholarship for 15 - 18.
  All national award rules apply as listed above. Exception: no age categories.Awards: The Amateur and Youth with the highest point totals will be recognized as respective Intermediates for each state/province. The Amateur winner and the Youth winner will both receive a trophy belt buckle and a certificate for a pair of Justin boots.
     
• From America;'s Horse Daily:
• In the youth age divisions, each winner receives a scholarship, belt buckle and a certificate for a free pair of Justin boots. Amateur age division winners receive a cash prize, belt buckle and a certificate for a free pair of Justin boots. Each state/province winner receives a belt buckle and a certificate for a free pair of Justin boots.

AQHA Incentive Fund

I keep forgetting to talk about this cool way to earn money through aqha. It starts out with the foal owner, and stallion. The breeder of it's a bigger barn with a stallion will probably enroll that stud into the incentive fund program. What that means is that when the Babies are born they also need to be registered in the incentive fund. After that, once they start competing, for every point you earn you will get some money. At the end of each year checks will be mailed giving the owner 70% of the earnings! the breeder gets 15&15 also goes to the stallion owner.
There is only one catch to all of this.
You have to re register every year paying a fifty dollar license fee.  However the point numbers go up every year. I think that for each point they pay out approximately 12-15 dollars so if you even earned 5 to 10 points you would be making some. Money.
For some reason I can't link the competition license but look it up on aqha.com if you are interested.
http://www.aqha.com/Showing/Content-Pages/Points-and-Rewards/Incentive-Fund/~/media/Files/Resources/Showing/Incentive%20Fund%20Annual%20License.ashx
Also the incentive fund is only open to amateur and open competitors.