FMM
Well-Known Member
My sister and I spent a lovely day today judging the ridden showing classes at a riding club about 60 miles from where I live. We judged for about 5 hours (8 classes and a championship) - everyone tried really hard, and when we offered advice for future classes, many of them came into the ring later in the day and had already shown improvement which was fantastic.
The reason for the post, however, is to ask people to remember to be polite to judges when showing. I have heard so many times on here people saying "they only placed the people they knew", "they don't like greys/black/bays", "they don't know what they are talking about" etc etc.
One horse came into the ring for the ridden horse class. The class was meant to be a ridden class for show horses i.e. cobs, hunters, riding horses hacks etc. A very flashy dressage horse came into the ring. It had an incredibly long tail, and to me, appeared to be totally kitted out for doing dressage. It also had quite a high leg action, and was totally a dressage horse and NOT a show horse. It also did not have great conformation - front legs coming out of the same hole, long in the back - really, just NOT a show horse. Anyway - called it in 3rd, did its show and went down to 4th. Didn't show an extension and the conformation problems really showed up when we saw it standing.
We placed the rest of the class - there were about 12 in it.
Whilst the rosettes were being given out, she asked (quite correctly) was there anything she could do to improve her placing. My sister advised her to try to show the horse less as a dressage horse for example, different plaits, shorter tail, saddle a little further back. The conversation then turned more to would she have been placed higher if the horse had been turned out differently. My sister replied along the lines of "not really, as the conformation of the horse was not quite as good as the others higher up the line" (she was trying to be kind). At this point the girl stormed out of the ring (we had not even finished giving the rosettes out) shouting to the audience that the judged thought her horse had poor conformation. She apparently then went back to the horse box park, said that the judges had only placed people they know (had never met them before as the riding club was so bl00dy far from us!) and that we didn't have a clue about showing (my sister has won something like 5 HOYS championships and 3 reserve championships over the past 10 years).
This is the type of thing that gives showing a bad name. If someone cannot accept that they won't win every class they enter, then don't do showing. She will now tell anyone that will listen (and I sincerely hope that she is a member on here and is now ashamed of her behaviour) that showing is crooked. Well - not today it wasn't. Her horse (quite simply) was not good enough. What was appalling was her shouting at the audience, storming off before the class was dismissed and having a go at the judges just because she didn't like what was said. Just because someone spends £20k on a horse does NOT mean that I have to think it has good conformation.
Anyway - apologies for the long post and the rant - but considering the bad press that showing judges get on here, it is about time a judge was able to put their side of a story!
(thank you to anyone that managed to read this lot
)
The reason for the post, however, is to ask people to remember to be polite to judges when showing. I have heard so many times on here people saying "they only placed the people they knew", "they don't like greys/black/bays", "they don't know what they are talking about" etc etc.
One horse came into the ring for the ridden horse class. The class was meant to be a ridden class for show horses i.e. cobs, hunters, riding horses hacks etc. A very flashy dressage horse came into the ring. It had an incredibly long tail, and to me, appeared to be totally kitted out for doing dressage. It also had quite a high leg action, and was totally a dressage horse and NOT a show horse. It also did not have great conformation - front legs coming out of the same hole, long in the back - really, just NOT a show horse. Anyway - called it in 3rd, did its show and went down to 4th. Didn't show an extension and the conformation problems really showed up when we saw it standing.
We placed the rest of the class - there were about 12 in it.
Whilst the rosettes were being given out, she asked (quite correctly) was there anything she could do to improve her placing. My sister advised her to try to show the horse less as a dressage horse for example, different plaits, shorter tail, saddle a little further back. The conversation then turned more to would she have been placed higher if the horse had been turned out differently. My sister replied along the lines of "not really, as the conformation of the horse was not quite as good as the others higher up the line" (she was trying to be kind). At this point the girl stormed out of the ring (we had not even finished giving the rosettes out) shouting to the audience that the judged thought her horse had poor conformation. She apparently then went back to the horse box park, said that the judges had only placed people they know (had never met them before as the riding club was so bl00dy far from us!) and that we didn't have a clue about showing (my sister has won something like 5 HOYS championships and 3 reserve championships over the past 10 years).
This is the type of thing that gives showing a bad name. If someone cannot accept that they won't win every class they enter, then don't do showing. She will now tell anyone that will listen (and I sincerely hope that she is a member on here and is now ashamed of her behaviour) that showing is crooked. Well - not today it wasn't. Her horse (quite simply) was not good enough. What was appalling was her shouting at the audience, storming off before the class was dismissed and having a go at the judges just because she didn't like what was said. Just because someone spends £20k on a horse does NOT mean that I have to think it has good conformation.
Anyway - apologies for the long post and the rant - but considering the bad press that showing judges get on here, it is about time a judge was able to put their side of a story!
(thank you to anyone that managed to read this lot
