Halter and Western

The Palm Beach Classic features three types of western riding competition: Pleasure, Horsemanship and Equitation. In Pleasure the focus of the judging is on the horse where ideally the horse is to appear to be a “pleasure” to ride, very comfortable, very responsive and very smooth. Horsemanship requires the horse and rider team to perform a more complex series of maneuvers where they are judged on both style and skill. And finally, in Equitation the focus of the judging is on the style and effectiveness of the rider.

Halter classes will be offered in the morning. Halter is an unmounted competition where horses are judged on their conformation, obedience and movement in order to determine superior breeding stock and suitability for their discipline. The Palm Beach Classic will be offering a variety of classes ranging from Open Stock to Color to Miniature and Hunter.

One of the main features of the western competition is the sensible class schedule. For each age group and skill level, there will be three classes run back to back. (No more waiting around for half of the day to ride all of your classes or switching saddles a million times if you are sharing a horse!) First, all entries will ride the pleasure class. Then, all entries will exit the arena and come back in one at a time for the horsemanship class. This format will provide the horses with a breather before everyone re-enters to ride the Equitation class. Champion and Reserve ribbons will be awarded for each division.