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Sorting Geldings
Horse and Rider
|Fall 2025
Evaluate and place these ranch sorting geldings. Then see how your choices compare to our expert judge's.
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THESE ARE THREE PERFORMANCE type halter geldings to be judged for their suitability for ranch sorting. Judging conformation should be based on which horse has the highest combination of the following traits: balance, structural correctness, high quality muscling, and appropriate breed and sex characteristics compared to the other individuals in the class.
I always begin judging by assessing overall balance, then structural correctness to back up that balance.
I'm looking for the horse that will provide the smoothest ride and stay sound the longest through a working career.
To stay organized and find the best horses, I put my classes in groupings, with the horses that are free of major faults in my top group, and any horses with major faults going into the bottom group. Depending on the size of the class, there may be groups in between the top group and the bottom group. I find the best in each group, and that helps me place them in an orderly manner, but in large classes, the horses earning ribbons may all be from the top group.
Gelding A
This story is from the Fall 2025 edition of Horse and Rider.
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