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This year there will be an exciting new addition for youth at the Pinto World Championship, which will be held June 9-21, 2014, in Tulsa, Okla., at the Built Ford Tough Complex. On June 8, there will be a youth judging contest open to all youth 18 and under at the Ford Livestock Arena.

The Senior division will consist of youth 14-18 years old. The Junior division will consist of youth 13 and under. Junior and Senior contestants may combine to form a Mixed-Age team, but contestants must compete in the Senior division and for Senior individual awards. Contestants who have competed on or are members of an intercollegiate horse judging team are ineligible to compete.

The contest will include both performance and halter classes, and contestants will have the opportunity to defend their placings in the reasons room following the evaluation of the classes. Performance classes will be chosen from western pleasure, reining, hunter under saddle/English pleasure, hunter hack, trail, western riding, and western horsemanship and/or hunt seat equitation. Halter classes will not include stallions. There will be no ponies, miniature horses or utility horses in the halter or performance classes.

The Pinto Horse Association of America will also be partnering with the Arabian Horse Association to sponsor the Pleasure Horse Double Crown award. This award will be given to the team with the highest average placing in the Youth Judging Contests that take place at the Pinto World Championship and the Arabian U.S. Nationals. No team will be eligible to enter the Pleasure Horse Double Crown after the Pinto World Championship. Teams must compete in both contests in order to be eligible for the Pleasure Horse Double Crown award.

“The Pleasure Horse Double Crown offers a unique opportunity for young judges to test their skills on a variety of types of horses,” said Darrell Bilke, PtHA Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. “We want to reward contestants for their consistency across multiple contests.”

The entry fee is $100 per team of four or $25 per individual. Entries are due May 8.

A coaches’ meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 7, in the Ford Livestock Arena.

Incorporated in 1956, the Pinto Horse Association of America was formed to encourage the promotion of quality horses, ponies and miniatures with color and to establish a registry for maintaining their show records and pedigrees. Currently, the association serves approximately 12,000 members and boasts more than 145,000 registered Pintos.

For more information about the 2014 Pinto World Championship, please visit www.pintoworld.com. To learn more about the Association, visit www.pinto.org or call the PtHA headquarters (405) 491-0111.