I’ve never gotten a clear answer on this and wanted to see if there was a group consensus from the COTH community. If you are on a horse that is antsy during the lineup after a flat class, will that effect how you pin in the class?
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It depends how antsy and how long it takes to pin it. If you have to circle a couple times and they pin it quickly, no. If the announcing system cuts out and it’s standing on its hind legs, yes. If your groom has to come in to retrieve you…
(My junior hunter was the queen of the massive meltdown).
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The strategic move would be to take a long time to work your way into the center of the ring for the lineup, and hope that the judge already has your number written down by then.
And then line up on one end or the other so that you can unobtrusively walk a circle or two without causing a problem for any other exhibitors.
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I do this when my guy gets antsy. It’s less of a problem now that he’s more experienced, but he has done it a couple times this last year, and both times he had to pee immediately upon entering his stall (so there is a reason! ha).
Take as long a walk as you can to the center, and I try to be on an end in case I do need to circle him just so I don’t disrupt anyone else. His behavior is usually can’t stand still and grinds on his bit. It’s never impacted placings.
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Can you teach him that god forsaken western pleasure walk so that your walk to the center takes outrageously long? Or would that wind him up more?
Watch 23:46 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRywYlwIIEk
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I judge, and for me it depends on the class. Adult Ammy/childrens hunter? Road Hack? Yes, I will count this against a horse. An open/green class? Less so. In the rules, the class descriptions should tell you what the judge is looking for, and if MANNERS is high on the list, then the judge should absolutely be looking at a horse that stands quietly.
That said, if the judge is pretty much done filling out their card, they are unlikely to change it.
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I want to rip my eyeballs out… 
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Oh god me too, for the entire thing. I do honestly hope that some of the competitors knew their horses were not “jogging”, but instead had learned how to do a really bouncy walk-thing due to the incessant slowing them down.
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OMG, that class started in 2020 and is still going on today. And they’ve only made a couple laps of the ring.
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But if you could teach this horse that ridiculous walk, you’d never have to worry about being antsy in the lineup because… well, you’d never actually get there!
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Thank you all for the responses!
My guy likes to walk with purpose and trying to overly manage him into a more collected walk will usually rev him up a bit, so we will just try to find the longest path possible to the lineup. 
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Leg yields. Can get a lot of extra space out of leg yields. Bending to either side. Maybe follow the fenceline for as long as possible.
Also I don’t know if practicing standing at home would help. I never realized that my horse did not know how to stand until we had to wait our turn at a clinic. Omg. Waiting our turn was way more tiring than the actual exercises. Mentally and physically. No idea how many circle miles we logged.
But I also realized that I never really asked him to stand at home. We started practicing, starting with counting to 2. Then counting to 3. And so on. Just so long as he could do it without his mind melting. It took some time to get to 8 seconds, then some time to work up to the big stand for 15 whole entire seconds. That was a LONG 15 seconds. But he did it. 
After that it became easier to extend the stand time. And this was just a few minutes at a time of practicing, it wasn’t hard to work it into a ride. We practiced everywhere, in different environments.
Horse actually learned how to stand, thank goodness. But I know it might be harder, even impossible, to get some horses to overcome their internal antsy-ness.
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How you stand sometimes makes a difference too. My mare only can stay immobile for so long if I stand with contact, as if we might be asked to do something. If I drop the reins and relax, she’ll stay parked all day.
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OMG. Thanks for sharing that video! I laughed out loud when the announcer called the second horse’s name. Granted I don’t know WP and don’t know what a “moderate extension of the jog” should look like… but her name is “Nothing But Lazy” and I swear my jumper walks faster than that on a 100 degree day mid-August when it feels like a sauna. 
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Hey now. That’s a moderate extension of the jog. 
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I’ve wondered about this too. Nice to see a judge’s perspective here, as well as some clever strategies.
Might want to try to line up on the end of the line farthest from the out gate. Pay attention to others in your class and try to line up next to something on the trained to death, dull, placid side, not a fidgety firecracker with a novice aboard.
They all know they are done and want to leave, the more show mileage they have, the worse that gets. You might try consistently working “whoa”and standing on a loose rein into every single ride. And not getting off immediately after, trot a couple of laps or something and ride out of the ring before dismounting will reprogram the go to center, line up and be done fixation. But sometimes they get stressed at the show and forget half what they learned…as do their riders,
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When I was maybe 9 or 10, I had a habit of kicking my feet out of the stirrups, dropping my reins, and slumping onto my horse’s back like I was on a couch in the line up of the short stirrup hack. The little kid equivalent of having a beer after a stressful work day - except the stress was twice around the outside of crossrails. 
My trainer told me quite firmly do not do that - because if a judge glances up to try to decide between a close placing, the person having a rest wasn’t going to come out on top.
Kind of the opposite problem of an antsy horse, but I was told that until placings are called you don’t know if a judge is done judging.
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That is absolutely correct.
And thats why you show until those numbers are called and need to figure out how to school that skill at home. Especially if you show in classes where manners are judged and Equitation, it can be a tie breaker…
