Horse judging is one of the competitions that our FFA competes in, this composition being a CDE (Career Development Event). This is a competition on judging the horse’s bone structure, balance, breed and sex characteristics, the mane on the horse and the stance. The competition gives students opportunities to earn money for their project or for themselves.

The contestants get 3 horses to judge and put into spots 1,2, and 3. They will be judging the judges on where they put the horses. The horses can range from all sorts of different horses from really good show horses to a “Lame” horse. A lame horse is a horse that can not walk.

Crystal Peterson, a junior, whose team ended up going to nationals last year taking top 10 in the nation, “We judge about 4 classes, like different horse breeds, most muscle, ridable…” This competition uses a lot of knowledge on how a horse is supposed to look and trying to find little things that others might miss when looking at a horse. With going to nationals the judging is a little more involved since the students must also have to take a horse knowledge test.