Cherry Hill has been a national horse show judge for several breed organizations since 1975. She designed this book to be useful for Western and English riders practicing at home and convenient for horse show judges. Each pattern has a detailed arena diagram which can be posted at a horse show. The Colorado Authors' League was established in 1931 and has presented Top Hand Awards to the best published fiction and non-fiction books and articles of the year on any subject. The Top Hand Award is one of the most prestigious writing awards in the region.
Previous winners represent the best of writers in all fields of writing as judged by their peers.
Originally the awards were a carved figure of a cowboy standing on a book, then hand-carved wooden horses. Although today's Top Hand Awards no longer depict a Cowboy theme, the title of Top Hand is especially appropriate for Cherry Hill, author of 23 books and over 1000 articles on the care and training of horses. Ringside guide says it all, and the spiralbound format is the familiar one Hill has used successfully to present arena drills and longeing exercises. As usual, each pattern to ride is presented on two pages black and white arena map or illustration on one page and written explanation on the other. Performance tips for making smooth transitions, for example, or using pattern markers to advantage are scattered throughout the text.