NRHA Patternit

Pattern #1 Pattern #2 Pattern #3 Pattern #4 Pattern #5 Pattern #6

Pattern #7 Pattern #8 Pattern #9 Pattern #10 Pattern #11 Pattern #12

Reining

“To rein a horse is not only to guide him,
but also to control his every movement.
The best reined horse should be willingly
guided or controlled with little or no apparent
resistance and dictated to completely.
Any movement on his own must be considered
a lack of control. All deviations
from the exact written pattern must be considered
a lack of or temporary loss of control;
and therefore, a fault that must be
marked down according to severity of
deviation. After deducting all faults set
here within, against execution of the pattern
and the horse’s overall performance,
credit should be given for smoothness,
finesse, attitude, quickness and authority
of performing various maneuvers, while
using controlled speed which raises the
difficulty level and makes him more exciting
and pleasing to watch to an audience.”

Scoring

The scoring of reining horses is on a positive numeric
scale with 70 denoting a correct performance.
NRHA patterns are comprised of several distinct
maneuver groups, which judges are asked to evaluate
on an individual basis depending on execution as
dictated by the pattern description and the rules for
judging. The individual maneuvers are scored in 1⁄2
point increments from a low of -1 1⁄2 (extremely poor
quality) to a high of +1 1⁄2 (excellent quality) with a
score of 0 denoting a maneuver that is correct with no
degree of difficulty. The total of the scores applied to
the maneuver groups is combined with the starting
score of 70 and from this gross maneuver score, any
penalties are deducted to calculate the horse’s final
score, which is announced after each horse works.

Patterns

The following patterns are to be worked as stated,
not as drawn. The drawn pattern is just to give
the general idea of what the pattern will look like
in the arena.
Markers will be placed on the wall or fence of
the arena as follows:
(I) at the center of the arena
(II) at least 50’ (15 meters) from each end wall.
Where designated in the pattern for stops to be
beyond a marker, the horse should begin his
stop after he passes the specified marker.
Each pattern is drawn so that the bottom of the
page represents the end of the arena entered by
contestants and must be run as such. In the event
that an arena has only one gate and it be in the
exact middle of the side, that side shall represent
the right side of the page the pattern is drawn on.
All horses will be judged immediately upon
entering the arena and judging will cease after
the last maneuver. Any fault incurred prior to
the commencement of a pattern will be scored
according to the Rules of Judging.
All judges’ decisions are final.