The Deepest Classes and Average Field Sizes

Placing in a 5-horse class isn’t the same as placing in a 224-horse class. The biggest class in my database was scheduled for 226 entries. Across 72,316 classes with placings, 426,597 placings in all, the average class size by discipline runs from the seventies down to three.

This post lists the deepest classes and the average class size for each discipline. The database now also holds the published draw sheets, so for 2,549 classes I have two separate counts of how many horses were in the class. They disagree a lot more often than I expected.

Numbers refreshed October 16, 2026.

Updated October 16, 2026. The data is several times bigger than the September version, and the draw sheets are in. The two counts measure different things. The entry count comes from the show schedule, which is how many entries the class was scheduled to have. The draw sheet is how many riders actually drew into that go. For 1,746 of 2,549 classes the draw sheet is bigger, sometimes by more than 100. The averages below use the schedule, because it’s the only count I have for every class. The draw-sheet comparison has its own section, and it changes how you should read the deepest-classes list.

The deepest classes

There are two lists here because there are two counts. “Scheduled” is the entry count on the show schedule. “Placed” is how many riders got a placing, and those numbers are very different.

By scheduled entries:

By the published draw sheet, meaning the number of riders who actually drew into the go:

Reining and Barrels fill both lists. Those are the disciplines where one class can hold 150 or more horses. Two things stand out in the columns:

• Most Congress classes publish 15 placings no matter how many entered. A 224-horse barrel race and a 15-horse local class both produce a 15-line results sheet. So the deepest class and the longest results list aren’t the same ranking, and anything calculated from the results sheet carries that limit.
• The draw-sheet list isn’t just the schedule list reshuffled. The All Star Reining Stakes Derby runs four levels together, so one 166-rider draw sheet covers classes whose schedules say 42, 57, 73, and 75. That explains almost every big disagreement below.

Average class size by discipline

This is the average scheduled entries per class for each discipline. “Classes” is how many classes are behind each average. The rows with only a few dozen classes are less reliable, but I left them in so you can see how much of the data is halter and pleasure.

The spread is much flatter than earlier versions of this page showed.

• A few disciplines run deep. Barrels (74) and Working Western Rail (52) are well ahead of everything else, with Equitation Over Fences and Cow Work next at around 20.
• Most pattern and rail classes have 6 to 10 horses. Trail, Showmanship, Horsemanship, Western Pleasure, and Hunter Under Saddle have the most classes in the data, and each averages under ten horses. The August version showed these in the mid-teens. The fields didn’t shrink. The data grew by thousands of small local classes, and there are far more of those than big ones.
• Halter has the most classes and some of the smallest. There are 8,815 halter classes averaging 5.2 entries, more classes than any other discipline. Halter is split into lots of narrow divisions with only a few horses in each.
• The bottom is small. Pleasure Driving averages 3.2 entries and Jumping 3.0. A win there still counts, but you aren’t beating much of a field.

How many horses were actually in the class?

The draw sheets list the starting order for each go, one rider per line. That’s a second count of class size, and it often doesn’t match the schedule’s entry count for the same class:

The typical difference is 4 horses, but one in ten classes is off by 32 or more, and the biggest difference is 144. The big ones come from how shows are run, not from bad data:

• Classes drawn together. Four levels of the All Star Reining Stakes Derby share one 166-rider draw sheet while their schedules say 42, 57, 73, and 75. A draw sheet covers a go, not a class.
• Combined and co-sanctioned divisions. The NRHA Novice Horse Level 2 — Open draws 158 against a scheduled 55. The schedule counts that one class. The draw sheet counts everyone riding in that go.
• Schedule entries are a plan. A reining futurity scheduled for 173 entries can draw 51 and place 15.

Read the two lists together. Which class is the deepest depends on which count you use: scheduled entries, drawn riders, or placings. They can differ by a factor of three. The safest pick for the biggest class is the 4D Open Barrel Racing at Congress, which tops both the schedule and the draw: scheduled for 226, with 224 drawn and 15 placings published.

How I did it

• Which classes count. I only used classes with at least one placing in the Combined Judges results: 72,316 classes and 426,597 placings. The entry count comes from the show schedule, with duplicate rows removed. I left out 8,549 schedule items that aren’t classes, like stall blocks, parking permits, and camping passes. A few of those have bigger “entry counts” than any real class. Without that filter, a barn stall block with 298 tops the list.
• Placings undercount the field. 40.2% of scheduled classes placed fewer riders than entered (26,105 of 65,008), and 1,505 classes list exactly 15 placings, which is my scraper’s limit. The placed count is a minimum, never the full class.
• The draw sheets are a partial sample. I have 2,549 draw sheets, and 2,293 of the placed classes have one. Big shows publish draws and small ones often don’t.
• Averages depend on which shows are in the data. Reining averages 15.3 here across 2,206 classes. In the August version it averaged 39.0 across 80. The sport didn’t change. The shows I’d collected did.
• This is the deepest in my data, not in the sport. The database covers the shows I’ve collected so far, mostly Congress and the championship shows, not every show ever run.

This is one of a series of posts built on my equine-data results database, a personal AQHA show-results explorer that analyzes every class I’ve collected.