Reining Guide

Reining Guide

by Celestia w/ help from Neco

POSING

A reining entry should consist of two pictures - the gallop and the handler's choice. The handler's choice can either be a sliding stop, a back up or a spin.

The canter/gallop needs the horse to be either fully extended with one foot on the ground or collected with its legs under its body. The horse must be looking forward, and the pose can be facing either the left or the right. The body should be straight as possible, with the head as aligned as possible. Horses are preferred to be looking to the left or right, depending on which way the horse is facing. The more aligned the gallop is, the higher the point total. This pose can be achieved when the horse is chasing something it wants, such as a toy. To achieve the canter, watch for the horse to transition from trot to gallop; to achieve the gallop, whip the toy across the screen and your pony is sure to follow.






The back up is the easiest pose to get and consists of the horse backing up. To achieve this pose, show your horse a toy it isn't familiar with and it will often back up. The horse should be as straight as possible, with either its hocks or its knees as close together as possible and with its head as aligned as possible. Even eyelids are preferred but worried ones are acceptable as well. Horses are preferred to be looking to the left or right, depending on which way the horse is facing.





The spin is a moderate pose to achieve. To get your horse to "spin," simply waggle a toy it really wants in front of its face. The horse will lose his damn mind and begin to playful rear, prop and eventually jump around in circles. When the horse flips around, that's when you take your pictures. The horse will do this every so often when it's super excited. For the pose, make sure AT LEAST one back leg (either one) is flat on the ground, its forelegs are splayed as it's turning around and its head is facing either the right or the left. The ears DO NOT have to be aligned as the horse's head will be at angle. Even or surprised eyelids are fine; the horse is being crazy so let it be crazy! Horses are preferred to be looking to the left or right, depending on which way the horse is facing. Some files look really freaking weird in this and will not be faulted.





The sliding stop is the hardest to get. To achieve this pose, you must show the horse the pumpkin and scare the living hell out of him. Sorry, ponies! When the horse is terrified, it'll slide back on its butt to achieve the classic "sliding stop" pose. You will have to train your horse for this pose by rewarding him when he gets scared. Eventually he'll "prop" and slide back on his butt to get away from the horrible pumpkin. The horse should be at angle to his rear with his forelegs splayed and facing either left or right. The pose should be as straight as possible with the ears together as closely as possible. SURPRISED EYES ARE ACCEPTABLE, as holy crap, wouldn't you be surprised too at that stupid pumpkin? Horses are preferred to be looking to the left or right, depending on which way the horse is facing.

NOTE: On V1s and Rafas, you will not get the legs tucked under the body as well as a V2. The movement of V1s and Rafas are a bit stiffer, so you will not be able to get the exact poses you'll get a V2. The examples below are the closest you'll want to aspire, with the same sort of alignment on the head and straightness of the body.




JUDGING

Each pose is judged on its own merit, just as you would for a regular pose show, against others of the same type. That is the Gallop/Canters will be judged against each other, and the "reining" poses will be judged against each other.

What this means is you're basically "ranking" the two types of poses against each other.

Say you have three horses entered in a show. Horse A has the best gallop, Horse B has the second best and Horse C as the third. You would then assign them points: Horse A gets 1 pt, Horse B 2 pts, and Horse C 3 pts.

Now you head to the reining poses. In this category, Horse B has the best "reining" pose (as in it's closest to the ideal or standard of its chosen type), Horse C has the second best and Horse A has the third best. Therefore in this category, Horse B would get 1 pt, Horse C 2 pts and Horse A 3 pts.

You would then add these points together, and the horse with the least amount of points or "penalties" wins. Your final Sheet would look something like this:

Horse A (4 pts)
Gallop: 1 pt
Reining: 3 pts

Horse B (3 pts)
Gallop: 2 pts
Reining: 1 pt

Horse C (5 pts)
Gallop: 3 pts
Reining: 2 pts


In this case, Horse B would win as he only has 3 "faults," while Horse A was second and Horse C was third. In the case of a tie, you can simply roll a die as the tiebreaker.

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