I have ridden horses all of my life. When people find out that I ride I get the same questions every time. Do you do rodeo? Do you go over jumps? Do you wear a silly hat? The list goes on and on. I might as well explain it once and for all.
The type of riding I do is called Reining. It is a western discipline, so yes I do wear a hat. A Reining pattern consist of maneuvers that the horse and rider must complete in order to get a score. There are a total of 11 patterns and each is made up of 8 maneuvers. The base score for a run is 70 and points are added or subtracted based on how well each maneuver is completed. A score above 70 is good and a score below is not very good. If a maneuver is left out or done wrong a score of 0 is achieved (which is very bad).
All of the maneuvers in a pattern are different. An example of a maneuver would be 4 spins to the right. Another one would be 3 circles to the left, 2 large and fast and then 1 small and slow. Maneuvers are scored on a point scale with 0 being average. +1.5 would be the best possible and -1.5 would be the lowest possible. This is how a score gets to be above or below a 70.
Next time I get asked what type of riding I do I am going to refer them to this blog, it will save me a lot of time and energy.
Below is an example of a reining pattern. There are 5 judges and each gives their score. The top and bottom score are dropped, with the other 3 being added together.
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