Note Taking
and
Preparation for Oral Reasons
Equine Science
Spring 2010
Created by: Bryan Egan and Stacie Domer
Penn State, 2006
Oral Reasons Overview
• Integral Part of a horse judging contest
• Offer contestant the opportunity to defend their
placing
• Must be concise, accurate, and under two
minutes
• Contestants should work from a mental image of
the horses from the class. Notes are just helpers
• Inorder to be successful, contestant must be
organized!
• Organization begins with good notetaking
Note Taking
• Learn to use short hand for notes
• Each individual’s short hand is likely to be
different and this is OK
• Use same organizational scheme for notes and
reasons
• Be careful not to miss something while taking
notes. Especially in performance!!
Note Taking
• Stenographers notebook works well for
notes
• Notes Taking
– Write down identifiers for each horse
– Begin by taking notes on class
• Good and bad qualities of each horse
– Convert to reason’s notes once class is
placed
• Comparative notes within each pair
Set up Notebook
Notes on Class
Set up Notebook
Reasons Notes
• Write down placing
• Divide page into 9
boxes
• Include ID points
• Organize notes
• Include:
– Connectors
– Transitions
Starting Out on Reasons
• Accuracy is first and foremost
• Must be grammatically correct
• Try to avoid memorizing words instead
think about class
• It is OK to start young people off writing
their reasons out but they should relatively
quickly work from just notes
Starting Out on Reasons
• Perhaps start out giving just a pair
– Work hard on presentation, style, and
organization
• Then move to giving two pair
– Begin breaking down terms, transitions, etc.
• Then give complete sets
– Once here, your on your way
Starting Out on Reasons
• Don’t forget to be positive, giving reasons
is hard
• Try to make it as fun as is possible
• Don’t try to fix everything all at once
• Always find the good things about the pair,
pairs, or set
– Being too critical will discourage youth
Organization
• Develop a system that is easy to
remember and easy to listen to
– Talk around the horse in halter
– Talk around the pattern in pattern classes
– Talk the first direction and then the second in
rail classes
Organization
• Opening Statement: simple or complex
– Sir, I placed the Quarter Horse Mares 123 and
4.
– Maam, Using quality, balance, and structural
correctness as my determining factors, my
preferred alignment of the Quarter Horse
Mares is 123 and 4.
– Sir, seeing the class to contain an easy top,
easy bottom and relatively tight middle pair,
my preferred alignment of the Aged Mares is
123 and 4.
Organization
• Top Pair
– In my top pair, I placed 1 over 2 because she was
the……
– In my initial pair, 1 easily rose to the top due to her
superior combination of quality, balance, and
structural correctness. She was……
• Grant
– I grant that 2 was heavier muscled.
– I realize and fully appreciate the fact that 2 was
heavier muscled.
• Criticism
– However, she lacked the quality and balanced
appearance of 1 to place higher today.
Organization
• Top/Middle Pair transition
– Moving to my middle pair
– Moving to my more difficult intermediate decision
– In spite of this she maintains a distinct advantage
over 3 in my middle pair
• Middle Pair
– 2 was more feminine about her head, thinner in her
throat and had a longer leaner neck which tied higher
into a more ideally laid back shoulder….
Organization
• Continue through set using same organizational
scheme for middle and bottom pair.
• Closing Statement:
– Could simply just be “Thank You” when done
– Could re-place the class: For these reasons, I placed
the Aged Mares 123 and 4. Thank You.
• Using the nine box setup and this layout for
every set of reasons helps people get unstuck
when they forget what they want to say.
Terminology
• Must be comparative
– Neck isn’t long it is longer, not heavy muscled
but heavier muscled, not he was cadenced at
the jog but he was more consistently
cadenced at the jog, etc, etc
• Keep things simple at first
– If you can’t pronounce it don’t use it
– If you don’t know what the term means don’t
use it.
Terminology
• Start off very simple
– Just discuss the major judging criteria for the
class
– Fill in details as experience and confidence
grows
• Once familiar with terminology, encourage
judgers to experiment with terms they like.
Add individuality to their reasons.
Connective Terms
• Aid in making reasons flow from one idea
to another. Can increase score.
However
Additionally
Moreover
Furthermore
And
Nevertheless
In addition
Also
Grants
• Grants are used to tell something good
about the horse placed below another.
– Rarely is one horse more ideal in all areas, so
grants are almost always used
• Correct grants can be extremely important
to scoring well on a set of reasons
• Don’t make something up just to have a
grant.
Grant Statements
• Really only need four grant statements in your
arsenal. One for each pair and no obvious.
I realize
Yes, it is true
I Grant
I realize and Fully appreciate
I concede
I appreciate
I readily admit
It is obvious
Seeing no obvious grants
Streamline Reasons
• Reasons become wordy
– Maybe even go over 2 minutes
• Remember reasons listener has to listen
to many sets on the same class
• Only discuss the RELEVANT facts used to
place each pair.
• Don’t talk to hear yourself talk
Practicing Reasons
•
•
•
•
Practice Out Loud
Give reasons to many different people
Practice from beginning to end each time
Always give your reasons as if you are
giving them to someone in a contest.
• Remember Perfect Practice Makes Perfect
Presentation and Stance
• Stance
– Body position
– Distance
• Eye Contact
• Presentation
– Volume
– Inflection
– Enunciation
Reasons Scoring
•
•
•
•
•
0 = Student doesn’t show up
1-25 = Shows up but doesn’t put forth effort
26-30 = Beginning to show effort but doesn’t care
31-35 = Starting to sound like a set of reasons
36-40 = Complete set with grants and some
presentation style
• 41-45 = The good set; complete set, good presentation,
accurate description of class
• 46-50 = The great set; transitions, creativity, accuracy,
great presentation and delivery