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 -11⁄2 (extremely poor quality) to a high of +11⁄2 (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
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Where designated in the pattern for stops to be beyond a marker, the horse should begin his stop after he passes the specified marker.
4. 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.
5. All horses will be judged immediately upon entering the arena and judging will cease after the last maneuver. Any fault incurred prior tothe commencement of a pattern will be scored according to the Rules of Judging.
6. All judges’ decisions are final.