American Stock Horse Association

Scoring System

ASHA Competitions, with standardized judging and scoring, serve as a medium to measure progress and provide an incentive for further improvement.

Riders get to compare specific maneuver scores from one competition to the next as they strive for improvement and exhibitors feel as if they are competing against themselves from one evaluation to the next.

Participants tend to encourage each other and celebrate their victories. Community support is paramount to the success of the American Stock Horse Association. 

With this program, both rider and horses eventually become very versatile.

How it Works

The scoring system is rooted in positivity and constructive feedback which empowers the rider and horse and reduces the risk of disqualification. 

In some years, there have been less than 10 horses disqualified in all of the classes – this is by design.

We believe that a horse should be given credit for what they accomplish rather than disqualified with no score.

These points may not seem significant, but if you take a look at the many different rules that are being offered today, you'll come to appreciate these ASHA rules. ASHA is firmly committed to a positive scoring system and the four classes of stock horse pleasure, reining, trail and working cow horse.

We recognize that there are many more fun and creative classes in which to show a stock horse.

However, in view of time required to conduct a show, we doubt they would measure any feature of a versatile stock horse that is not measured in the four classes that we offer.