Freestyle Riding

FREESTYLE RIDING

2021 Freestyle Class guidelines.

Freestyle riding provides the opportunity to arrange maneuvers creatively in combination with costumes, music and choreography to demonstrate a horse’s athletic ability in anappealing manner.

Guidelines:

❖ All 4-H safety rules will apply.  Any approved English or western tack is permitted.  Entrants will only be judged astride the horse.

❖ Time limit is four minutes including introductions, announcements and setup of props.

❖ May show one handed or two handed

❖ May touch the saddle during the ride.

❖ May not take hands off reins.

❖ May not take feet out of stirrups

❖ Costumes

  • Costumes are encouraged but not required.
  • Must not attach the rider to the horse in any way.
  • May be on the horse but must not interfere with the natural movement of the horse.
  • May not interfere with the rider’s ability to see or safely dismount. 
  • May not obstruct the ability of the judge to observe the horse’s movement.
  • Must be 4-H appropriate

❖ Props: o Must be stationary and may not be liveo May not impair the judge’s view of the horse and rider.

❖ Music: o Must be 4-H appropriateo Must be turned into freestyle committee by noon of the day prior to the classo Submit on cd or usb with copy of lyrics, artist, and title and song lengtho Music may be edited and should be three minutes or less.

❖ Maneuvers:  o Chosen from the approved list▪ 6 for seniors▪ 5 for juniors and intermediateo Submitted in the order performanceo Must be performed in the order listed

❖ Judging:  

  • Each listed maneuver will be judged in the order submitted by the entrant.
  • The quality of the maneuver will be scored from -1 1/2 to +1 1/2 in half point increments with -1 1/2being very poor and +1 1/2 being excellent. 0 is average.  
  • The maneuver will be judged the first time it is performed.  If a maneuver is repeated all scores are recorded and then added together and averaged.  The final maneuver score is rounded up to the nearest ½ point.  For instance if the sum of the scores is + 1 ½ for two of the same maneuver the average is ¾ and it would be rounded up to +1(per NRHA rules)
  • Transitional Maneuvers
  •  Any maneuver that is not one of those listed by the entrant will be judged as a transitional maneuver.  
  •  Transitional maneuvers (any maneuver not listed in the required 5 or 6 depending on division) will receive a combined score from -2 to +2 in half point increments with –2 being very poor and +2 being excellent. 0 is average. Transitional maneuver scores will be recorded in the seventh box of the score sheet, added and averaged to obtain the final transitional score and rounded up to the nearest ½ point(sixth box for juniors and intermediates) 
  • Penalties are not averaged and are simply added together and subtracted from the final score.
  •  Artistic Score
  •  Choreography, musicality, presentation and balance, and originality 
  • Artistic components will receive a combined score from -2 to +2 in half point increments with -2 being very poor and +2 being excellent. 0 is average. Artistic score is added to the final performance score.
  • We could have two score here one for costume and one for musicality to add more weight to the artistic component and the +2-2 range also adds more weight. o 
  • Disqualifications:
  • Unsafe behavior of the rider or animal at the judge’s discretion.
  •  Rearing, bucking.
  • Rider dismounts or falls off prior to completion of pattern.   
  • Failure to perform all listed maneuvers 
  • Failure to perform the maneuvers in the listed order
  • Failure to complete performance in the allotted time (4 minutes)
  • The judge may stop any contestant at any time during the pattern if he or she feels that it is unsafe for the exhibition to continue.  This would result in disqualification.

❖ Props

  • Must be stationary and may not be live
  • May not impair the judge’s view of the horse and rider.

❖ Music: 

o Must be 4-H appropriateo Must be turned into freestyle committee by noon of the day prior to the classo Submit on cd or usb with copy of lyrics, artist, and title and song lengtho Music may be edited and should be three minutes or less.

Penalties

Penalties will be listed on the score card in the top row in the box that corresponds to the maneuver or if during a transitional maneuver the penalty will be listed in transitional maneuver box.

2 point penalties

• Break of gait 

• Freezing up in spins or rollbacks

 Lead penalties

• 1 point – Each time a horse is out of lead.

• The penalty for being out of lead is accumulated, and the judge will add 1 penalty point for each ¼ of the circumference of a circle or any part thereof that a horse is out of lead 

• ½ point for a delayed change of lead by one stride.

Other penalties

• ½ point for starting a loped circle at a jog or exiting rollbacks at a jog up to 2 strides. 

• ½ point for over or under spinning up to 1/8 of a turn

• 1 point for over or under spinning up to ¼ of a turn

• If the rider means to trot out of a roll back they need to trot a long way —judges discretion.  Benefit of the doubt goes to rider.   If the rider wishes to a show a circle at the counter canter they should make that clear in their pattern description again judges discretion.

MANEUVER LIST

JUNIORS select 5 DIFFERENT maneuvers.

SENIORS select 6 DIFFERENT maneuvers.

1.  BACK UP

2.  TURN ON THE FOREHAND

3. trot RIGHT DIAGONAL

4.  trot LEFT DIAGONAL

5.  SHOULDER IN

6.  SHOULDER OUT

7.  SPEED TRANSITION

8.  SERPENTINE 3 LOOPS

9.  LEG YielLD RIGHT

10.  LEG YieLD LEFT

11.  POSTING TROT TO SITTING TROT

12.  LENGETHEN STRIDE 

13. CIRCLE RIGHT LEAD

14. CIRCLE LEFT LEAD

15. SIMPLE LEAD CHANGE

16. FLYING LEAD CHANGE

17. SIDE PASS LEFT

18. SIDE PASS RIGHT

19. SPIN LEFT (INDICATE NUMBER OF SPINS)

20. SPIN RIGHT (INDICATE NUMBER OF SPINS)

21. SLIDING STOP

22. LEFT ROLL BACK

23. RIGHT ROLL BACK

24. LEAD DEPARTURE