The Classes

Conformation: Designed to showcase the conformation necessary for a ranch horse to do his job under saddle.  Horses are ridden into the ring for judging.  After walking to the judge and trotting past, horses are unsaddled for inspection.

Ranch Pleasure: Designed to show a horse that is a pleasure to ride.  Horses are required to work both ways in the arena at the walk, jog and lope with purpose to their strides.  The walk is intended to cover ground, the jog should be faster than the walk, the extended jog is truly extended and the lope is a true 3-beat gait.

Ranch Versatility: Features obstacles a ranch horse may encounter in their daily work as well as reining maneuvers that are also useful to a broke ranch horse.  Obstacles include a gate, trotting over 4 logs, loping over a 12” jump, and dragging an obstacle.  The reining work consists of loping circles each direction with lead changes, stopping, rollbacks, and back.

Ranch Cutting: Judged on the horse’s ability.  Open and Amateur: A single numbered cow is cut from the herd and held to show sufficient control.  A second cow is then cut and held. 2 minute limit. Novice & Youth: A single numbered cow is cut from the herd and held to show sufficient control within a 1 1/2 minute time limit.

Working Cow Horse – Shows a horse’s ability to work a cow.  It consists of holding or boxing a cow at the end of the arena to show control, taking the cow down the fence and turning each direction, and then circling the cow in the middle of the arena in both directions.  This class is similar to the AQHA class, but without the reining (dry) work.

Ranch Roping: The objective is to catch the cow with minimal chase (walk or trot only).  The rider sorts out the designated numbered cow from the herd and ropes it with a breakaway rope.  Legal catches must go over the head or include the horns.  The rope must be dallied to the saddle horn and come tight to break the breakaway Honda.