WAPAKONETA The second day of the 174th Auglaize County Fair found 4-H families at the Horse Arena for the annual Horse and Pony Show, with competitions kicking off at 9 a.m. and continuing late into the evening.The Junior Fair showcases and competitions are organized by the Auglaize County Junior Fair Board, comprised of local youth in a 4-H club, vocational agricultural or family and consumer science group, Junior Grange, Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts units or Farm Bureau Youth Council.Mondays exhibition was organized by Horse Chair Ollie Chisholf, 18, a member of the Buckeye Beavers 4-H Club in St. Marys.This is the pleasure show for the junior fair horses, he explained. A lot of people know the horse shows for the speed and the barrels and the poles, but this is showmanship, horsemanship.Pleasure shows evaluate a horses disposition, gait and manners, or how pleasureable they are to ride. 4-H members ages 6 through 18 demonstrated their showmanship and control over their horses by guiding them through a series of intricate patterns.We have a judge out that makes a pattern for each event, Chisholf said. Then he judges based on that pattern, their attire, the proper technique, a bunch of stuff like that.Riders entered the track tail-to-the-rail, pressed tightly against the fences. Instructions, such as walk, canter, trot and lope, were called out over a speakerphone.In the center stood Paul Mayhan, who has been judging the Auglaize County Fairs 4-H horse shows for 29 years. In his hands, he held a clipboard with the patterns being performed.This is the pattern were getting ready to do, he said, tracing a series of shapes with his finger. Weve got three cones, A, B and C, and this is a lope, so they will do a right lead lope to B, then do a trot at a circle and then come around, stop and go back, then extended trot to C. And theyre scored on each of these maneuvers.Mayhan explained he uses a point-based system, where each maneuver is scored on a negative-to-positive scale.Were getting ready to do the Western horsemanship, where each maneuver has a minus-three to plus-three score, he said. Theres penalties for if theyre on the wrong lead or on the wrong side of the cone, they dont back, those sort of things.Because the scoring is largely subjective, Mayhan said he aims to be as positive and constructive as possible. His ultimate goal is for kids participating in these competitions to be encouraged to join the agricultural industry.I cant always be 100% positive, but I hope at the end of the day, Ive made a difference in a kids life and that they choose to go on with this industry in some sort or another, he said. As a judge, Im rooting for them as much as their parents or grandparents are.Reach Safia Malhotra at 567-242-0351