Explanation of western class scoring system
Rail classes
It is normal procedure in western classes that judges do not consult with one-another, and turn in separate cards. Western rail
classes are placed by the judges, not scored. When multiple judges turn in separate cards there are numerous ways to have many
ties. In order to break ties and reduce the time needed to determine the placings from two separate judges’ cards, the following
system is used:
Before the show, each western class is numbered in sequence, class 1, class 2, class 3, etc. Judges are numbered Judge 1, Judge 2.
Judge 1 will be the tie-breaker judge for the odd numbered classes, and Judge 2 the tie-breaker for the even-numbered classes.
Judges are asked to place all riders in every class.
When the judges’ cards come in, they are entered into the computer program, which assigns to the placings the following AQHA
scoring values:
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
7th
8th
9th
10th
11th
12th
13th
14th
15th
120
105
91
78
66
55
45
36
28
21
15
10
6
3
1
Each rider’s score value from both judges are added and the rider with the highest total would be the winner. If there are any ties,
we look to the tiebreaker judge’s card to determine who wins the tie. This system eliminates all but “true” ties, which would mean,
nd
rd
nd
rd,
for instance, that of two riders, Judge 1 placed rider #88 2 , and rider 99 3 , while Judge 2 placed rider 99 2 , and rider 88 3
giving a total value of 196 to each rider. This would produce a true tie and we would look to the card of the tie-breaker judge
assigned to that class to determine the winner of the tie. This applies to all placings in the class.
Reining
Reining classes are scored, and we add the scores of both judges and place the class by total scores. In case of a tie, we use the tiebreaker judge for that class.
High Point Rider
Each phase is worth 50% of the total. The rail phase is placed as a rail class and the reining as a reining class. To determine the High
Point Rider, the list of winners from the rail phase is then given the AQHA scoring values, as shown, above, and the reining is placed
and the list of winners is given the scoring values. The two values are then added together to determine the winner.
The tiebreaker judge is assigned by the order of the class in the schedule, odd or even. In case of ties, rail results take precedence
over reining; the tie-breaker judge’s card in the rail phase breaks the tie.