Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse
News
Words
Do Matter
Say What You Mean and Do What You
Say
When I was a
youngster my Mother used to tell me to be careful about what I said,
but even more careful about how I said it. Plain speaking may look
like arrogance or rudeness in some cultures. Perception is important
yet it is not as important as clarity of purpose.
“Words
matter,” she would emphasize sternly, “ and what you say, sets the
standard for what you will do, and what people will expect from
you.” Like many people I have grown to realize that my parents
really did know more than I knew when I was a teenager and I often
think about my Mother’s admonitions before I respond to evaluation
forms for judges or have conversation with exhibitors, because
Mother was right: Words do matter.
On a
personal level, the words you say and how you say them reflect
personal character. In the world of organizations, words reflect
both the purpose and the values of an association. If you listen
carefully to what is said and read the written words published by an
organization like the KMSHA you can get a clear picture of exactly
what is required for success. You also get a clear picture of where
there are disconnects between what people say they want and what
they really want, when they discover that the words they’ve written
may not match the music to the tune they like to sing.
Recently, I
sent out letters, rule books and examinations to prospective KMSHA
judges. I was surprised when an application was returned from a
candidate who decided that he no longer wanted to pursue a license
with KMSHA. He wrote that the reason he had decided against taking
his examination was that the rule book had too many rules/words
regarding tack, attire, ring protocol, and way of going, and not
enough emphasis on horses. In short, he felt that there were too
many words that were unimportant to the actual judging of horses to
suit him. He failed to realize that the rules regarding tack,
attire, ring protocol and way of going are what make it possible to
actually judge horses in competition, with all entries starting from
the same basic point.
It
struck me as I read his letter that a failure to read the words of
the KMSHA rule book and to understand their importance in context is
a root cause for the difficulty that exhibitors may have in
understanding the placings of judges. Judges also fail exhibitors
and the sponsoring organization when they go off on tangents that
are not supported by the words in the rule book, when they
substitute their personal judgments of what is wanted in evaluating
horses over the written standard of the organization that sets the
parameters for their breed.
I thought it
might be instructive and helpful to use this column to take a look
at a seminal sentence of the KMSHA rule book and to see what the
words in a section direct judges to do, and by extension what
exhibitors are meant to produce in the ring.
“Judges are
to reward horses presenting the most fluid, natural, forward moving
appearance, and to penalize horses presenting an appearance of a
horse trained with artificial devices or methods to enhance or alter
the natural gait, whether or not such devices or methods were
actually used.” (Page 101 of the 2006 KMSHA rule book)
This
sentence, describing the general parameters for what is to be
rewarded in KMSHA show rings, seems straightforward but what do the
words really mean? To discover how a horse that is supposed to win
ribbons is supposed to look, according to this sentence, let’s
examine the carefully chosen words through definitions taken from
Webster’s New World Dictionary:
Fluid:
marked by or using graceful movements. Taken in the context of horse
show judging, the word fluid means that horses are not meant to look
labored in their movement. What does this mean to you as an
exhibitor? If you present a horse that is rough, choppy, uneven,
jerky, or makes transitions that do not flow naturally up and down -
instead pulling your horse back over his hocks in a slam on the
brakes fashion, or dragging him backward through pulling on the
reins in the reinback, the movements of your horse can not be
considered fluid. The description of what judges are to reward says
that your horse can not be rewarded unless his movement is fluid.
Natural:
true to nature, free from affectation or artificiality. A natural
moving horse is one that appears to be a pleasure to ride. Although
training may have improved the quality of its gaits, the training
has not caused the horse to appear to be artificial or forced in its
movement. When you see a horse gaping at the mouth, counter bent so
that its head is going one way, while its hindquarters go another,
or ridden with such a death grip on the reins that the horse has no
option but to invert its neck and drop its back to try to avoid the
pressure in its mouth, (a practice called holding a horse together
or propping a horse up in the bit) that horse has not met the test
of natural movement. It can not be rewarded when compared with other
horses that give a natural appearance.
Ahah!
Someone is sure to say. “I knew that this judging program intended
to discriminate against animation in Mountain Horses.” Not so.
The word
animation means to have a vivacity or a lively quality to movement,
an energetic gaiety or spirit. An animated horse should be a joy to
watch and a pleasure to ride. If the animation is affected or
artificial, if it looks forced or appears to cause the horse
discomfort through its execution, it does not fit the definitions of
the words fluid or natural, used with intent and purpose by the
writers of the KMSHA rule book.
Forward:
ready or eager, prompt. A forward moving horse is one that does not
require being spurred every step to continue on its way. All well
trained horses should give the appearance of being ready or eager to
work, prompt in their responses to the aids, and responsive to
requests for changes of gait. Horses that pin their ears, are
resistant in any fashion, or lack energy in the execution of the
gaits do not meet the definition of the word forward.
Anyone who
has ever had to nag a horse to keep it going, or to get it going,
knows that the quality of forward, yet in control, is an important
attribute of a well trained pleasure horse. Judges are looking for
forward moving horses, which is not the same as applauding horses
that are being over ridden so that the required gaits are placed in
jeopardy.
Here’s
something else to think about—the often overlooked trail walk. At
the trail walk, the horse must be relaxed through his neck and over
his topline, yet he must still be forward moving. A trail walk is a
brisk, ground covering but relaxed gait. The horse must look as if
he has somewhere to go and that somewhere is not to the last round
up. Good trail walking horses walk out of their shoulders and cover
ground in an easy going fashion. Having a horse that is slow legged
and walking in place is not synonymous with a forward moving trail
walk.
Artificial: made in imitation of or as a substitute for
something natural; pretended, feigned, ersatz. A comedian several
years ago referred to something in his routine as being “a genuine
copy of a fake Dior.” I loved that expression because it is so
perfectly descriptive of phoniness in any endeavor. The word ersatz
is also a great choice for describing something that is artificial,
because artificiality, when compared to what is real or genuine, is
only a cheap imitation of what is true and has inherent value. The
KMSHA breed standard sets out what is required for the appearance
and gaits of Mountain Horses, solid or spotted in color. The breed
standard is the Genuine Dior; all variations away from that standard
are ersatz. Judges are to penalize, according to the KMSHA rule
book, the ersatz over the genuine.
Enhance:
to make greater or to augment. The word “enhance” used in a penalty
section could be a cause for debate. There are people who will be
quick to say that all the gait purist wants is a horse that looks
like he just came out of the pasture— that that’s what they mean by
a “pleasure horse” and that purists are biased against a “show”
horse.
The minute
training of any type takes place a horse changes from what he was
when left to his own devices. Improper training can make a horse
rigid, tense and unsupple. Proper training makes a horse supple,
athletic and gymnastic, and also allows for the development of
extension of the gaits, engagement of the hindquarters, and, for
horses with natural inclination, an increase in elevation. These
“changes” in the horse can all beneficial and are to be encouraged.
Proper training could be considered, in a positive sense, as
“enhancing” the performance of the horse. Yet we must also remember
what Xenephon said in his treatise written on horsemanship a
thousand years or more ago, “Nothing that is forced can ever be
beautiful.”
In the
context of this KMSHA paragraph requiring that a horse that has been
“enhanced” be penalized, regrettably the word applies to a horse
that may have been augmented through mechanical or chemical
processes, to do more than its normal range of motion would allow,
thereby modifying its stance and way of going for the purpose of
exploiting to an unnatural degree the natural gait of the horse.
“Enhancements” of this sort are both illegal and ill advised as over
time they destroy the natural gaits of the horse.
Alter:
to become different, to change. The KMSHA desires to protect and
preserve the genuine gaits of the Mountain Horse and the
pleasureability of temperment of a this good minded pleasure horse.
Whether classic, trail, country trail, or park pleasure, the
foundation of the gaits and the importance of the mind set remain
the same. Mountain Horses are not imitation walking horses,
saddlebreds, paso finos or racking horses. Altering the gait to make
it into something different, or changing it away from the from the
standard, is to be penalized. The words in your rule book are clear
and clearly intended to protect the breed while promoting the
natural qualities of the horse.
“Judges are
to reward horses presenting the most fluid, natural, forward moving
appearance, and to penalize horses presenting an appearance of a
horse trained with artificial devices or methods to enhance or alter
the natural gait, whether or not such devices or methods were
actually used.” (Page 101 of the 2006 KMSHA rule book)
There’s a
lot of information in this single small sentence from the KMSHA rule
book. That one sentence leads us to another word that is repeated
throughout the book. The word is quality. Quality, according to
Webster’s, is the degree of excellence which a thing possesses or
any of the features that make something what it is.
The KMSHA
judging program is demanding quality performance of its judges, just
as riders, trainers and breeders must look for quality in the
animals that they are producing, whether they are intended for the
trail, the breeding barn or the show ring. If you produce quality,
you have a right to expect quality in evaluating your stock.
Quality,
however, can be either excellent or poor, valuable or shoddy. There
is too much poor quality and shoddy value all around us. Here,
within the confines of the KMSHA, a commitment has been made to
quality to achieve excellence in adjudication and in horseflesh.
A commitment is
a pledge or a promise to do something. My promise is to work with
judges until they deliver the best quality program, based on the
KMSHA rule book, that can be put into action in center ring. Words
do matter. You have mine.
Note .....
In the next issues of the KMSHA
magazine a regular column on judging issues will run. If you
have questions about the judging program, I'll be happy to answer
them within the column if the questions are of interest to the
broader audience or I'll send you a personal answer if your focus is
more narrow. Please direct your questions to the
Editor of the
magazine and they will be forwarded to me. To submit a
question I'll need your name and address and also the specifics
surrounding your question if it concerns a recent shows.
Meanwhile, you can help to build this
judging program by becoming proactively involved. Become
familiar with the rulebook and put your horses in the right
divisions. Know what separates mediocre horses from good
horses from great horses based on the Standard. Then, train to
the standard and look at your horse as critically as a judge will
look at him.
Be honest about your horse's gaits.
If you are over-riding so that the horse is pacing or slick pacing,
slow down.
Use adherence to the standard as your
criteria for evaluating your own placings at the show as well as in
evaluating the judges.
Forward your comments, based on
specifics, not on general likes and dislikes, about the judges.
Use the evaluation forms available at the shows in the officer area
to give your educated perspective on what happened during the show.
In this inaugural season for the new
judging program, we begin the process of growing together. In
time, this program will stand as an example of how horse show
judging should be done. The goals are quality, consistency,
adherence to the rules, and fairness to each exhibitor. In the
final analysis, nothing else is or should be acceptable.
by:
Cherie A. Beatty
Independent Director of Judging
for
the KMSHA/SMHA
