Club Background

DENTON COUNTY 4-H HORSE JUDGING TEAM

Being on a 4-H judging team teaches youth the skills to become an authoritative person.

Horse judging consists of making a careful study of animals, measuring them individually against a commonly accepted ideal. Horse judging is an art where an authoritative person expresses his or her opinion of a class, by his or her order of placement. A educated judge should be able to express his or her opinion orally to reinforce the order of placement

To give oral reasons they must understand the various breeds and know the terminology to describe the attributes of each breed. It is very important that the coach know the basics of oral reasons so that the 4-Hers know what they are doing. Oral reasons are the most stressful part of being on a judging team, or judging at a real show defending your placing to horse show parents! The coach must prepare the 4-Hers to give a flowing comparison and contrasting set of reasons. Judges should be able to describe the placing of the class in two minutes or less. As always, practice makes perfect, and you can never practice judging horses enough.

History

Denton County Horse Judging has been going strong for years. Terri Cage has been coaching since 1996.

Some of our past members have been a former Miss Texas Teen Rodeo, and a Red Raider for Texas Tech University. All have learn self-confidence and excellent speaking skills.

Reasons are the most important part of a judging contest. The participants are required to justify their placings to the officials in a confident manner. The reasons are what build skill in speaking in front of people, demonstating ease in emorization, and being precise in decision making. Also they will make or break the success of a contestant. A person with high reasons scores and average placing scores will usually excell over someone will average reasons and high placings. Reasons are structured with an opening statement, a top pair, a middle pair, a bottom pair, and a closing statement. Reasons should include a grant for the lower placed horse of each pair; color identifications of the horses; transitions such as "in addition," and "furthermore"; and action words such as "exhibited," "demonstrated," and "showed." Moreover, only the bottom placed horse of each class can be criticized therefore increasing the dificulty of giving a good set of reasons. The average set should be around two minutes, no notes can be used when giving reasons, and, ideally, a person should not pause or stutter. The ability to give good reasons comes with years of practice.