Ringmanship: Getting Seen & Doing Well in a Flat Class

Doing well in a flat class and getting seen by the judge in a positive way requires emphasizing your strengths and minimizing your weaknesses. Find out where a judge sits in the ring to be seen in the best light with advice from an experienced trainer in this video on riding and jumping horses.

The next subject we're going to touch on is ringmanship, and ringmanship applies to how you use the ring to your advantage during a flat class for this discussion. The first thing you need to know is what class are you going into--whether it be under saddle, equitation on the flat, those are your two main choices in the hunter/jumper field. When you're going into an under saddle class, you need to know what your strongest gait is, meaning if your horse has a beautiful canter, you really want to show off your canter. If your horse has a beautiful trot, that's the gait you want to get seen at the most. So it's very important that you know your horse and also know and focus on what the judge is looking for in that class. In the equitation, you need to know your strengths as a rider. Do you do a beautiful sitting trot? If so, you want to get seem the most at the sitting trot. If your canter is a little weak, you actually want to do a good job of not getting seen as much at your weaker gait. The thing I like to do is really, what is really important is knowing where your judge is when you go into a class. So make sure you go and look where a judge sits in the ring, and that's important whether you're doing a flat class or a jumping class, however in a flat class if you know the judge is sitting on one side of the ring, it's probably likely that that judge is going to judge from that point during the flat class. If you have the advantage of being able to watch the judge judge another flat class, you're going to be at a big advantage, because you can actually watch the judge and see where he's looking in the ring. Some judges are great and can judge the whole ring; however, a lot of them pick a certain spot in the ring to watch. That may be the line right in front of them, or the quarter line across from them, but if you can watch a judge judge a class, you can learn a lot about where they look, so if I know the judge is judging on the quarter line across from me, I'm going to pick my best gait so maybe that's my under saddle trot, and in the under saddle I'm going to get to that spot as much as possible at the trot to show it off. If I know he's judging that quarter line, and my horse doesn't have a very good canter, I'm going to take my time to not be on that quarter line as much as possible at the canter, because I don't want to show off my poorest gate. So know where your judge is, and know what your best strengths are, and make sure you show them off. The other thing that's very important is, if you can, if you can watch the judge, for example, judge another equitation class, you can listen to the announcer and ask what...or listen to see what things the judge is asking for. So, for example, if in the equitation 12 and under class before yours, the judge asks for a simple change of lead or a halt or an extension, you should be practicing that in the warm-up before you head out. Knowledge is key. You have to be good, you have to listen, you have to know where your judge is, and you need to use your ring to your advantage. Best of luck!