comments by dressage judges that made you cross (just for fun.)

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shugmx

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I have just been reading comments on master dressage fb page, people getting hot under the collar with comments they have received at dressage competions. My daughter who had just turned 12 at the time and moved on to a larger pony had her first prelim with him. Things went wrong and my daughter got snatchy with the reins. The judge told her off which would made her think twice on doing it again. Fair enough and we went home and practiced hard for the next two weeks. When we arrived back i was standing beside the stuart and the judge of the week. The stuart spotted my daughter in the ring and began to tell the judge about her poor riding the week before, they didnt know who i was and i just walked away and my daughter went in on her old faithful pony. Who she often gets 75 to 80 % on. Well she came out with 59% and comment stated that rider has to stop snatching the rein on the pony to give a better picture. Which she didnt do once, but he had been influnced by his earlier conversation. Cross to say the least. My daughter learnt her lesson though good riding often gets forgot about, but a mistake will follow you around for a while.
 
Mine are usually well deserved, one ODE when the big horse wanted to XC not poxy dressage - I got "struggling to keep his attention" which given we did the whole test in canter (the walk bits at walk speed collected canter and the trot bits at trot speed canter) I can't blame them for!
 
Which is better, to tell all the children they are fantastic riders ignoring mistakes or to tell them what they were doing wrong so they can improve?

It depends on the age of child and what class competing - but affiliated dressage kids 12+ should not have sugar coated comments. In my opinion anyway! Under 12s PC and unaff it should be all about encouragement and enjoyment for the riders :)

Tend to known its been a bad class when the only comment in the collective marks is "nice pony" or "well turned out" lol :p
 
I have two stories - one negative, and one positive. The negative one, the judge made a comment on my sheet that I should 'kick him into an outline' ! What ???? Well that was useful advice (???) I question that judges ability to judge. However a totally separate event and different judge, the very kind/diplomatic comment, was when my horse spooked at the mirrors in an indoor arena and literally shot across the arena (was supposed to be on a 20m circle). Judge's comment on my sheet was 'wobbled on circle'. Bless her. He wobbled alright ! :-)
 
When I was a teenager I had a Welsh d I did dressage on. He was marmite to judges- I'd get 75 one week and 55 the next with a v similar test. One bad week I was doing a freestyle and he did (in my eyes) a lovely test - the judge slated every movement and every collective I got a 52 ... In the other ring on the same day I got a 73 ... Anyhow when they were handing the sheets out she came up to me and asked me for a copy of the music she had just trashed... I'm not a bad loser but apparently I gave her the dirtiest look ever and ran back to the box where I burst into tears...

On a totally different day a very nice judge was judging me on a day where the same pony was being a plonker. My freestyle elementary test had a walk to canter in the corner before A - and instead of cantering he pratted about trotting on the spot (think LOADS of tension) her comment 'piaffe not required at this level' 😊
 
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I got told i have a 'SUPER DUPER' pony and a 'fantastic position for a young rider' but could benefit from 'more pony club lessons to perfect the overall picture'. i'm 23, the judge thought i was a child in my tweed riding a 14hh dales pony!
 
AllyJ92 said:
I got told i have a 'SUPER DUPER' pony and a 'fantastic position for a young rider' but could benefit from 'more pony club lessons to perfect the overall picture'. i'm 23, the judge thought i was a child in my tweed riding a 14hh dales pony!
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Guess your still allowed in the pony club till your 25 ;)
 
A really daft one, but I get annoyed when judges refer to Genie as 'he' in their comments... Yes she's a cob with a neck to put some stallions to shame, but at the top of the sheet it says 'MISS Congeniality'!!! Like I said, daft, but annoys me nonetheless!
 
Didn't make me cross, but more wryly grin....

Prob around when Novice 86 test was out (may have been something else tho) - up centre line & halt at X.... <stuff>..... finish with halt at G.
My mount was pretty newly going under saddle, this was 1st comp at all, pre-novice at Twesledown & boy was he excited!

Came up centre line in lovely trot & attempted to halt at X - he lifted up front end (but we DID stop!)
Managed to complete the rest of the test rather more briskly than I had ever done on any horse to date & 'just' stayed in the arena on canter circles, manic mount then saluted again at G (had never gone up in his life!)
Main comment was 'Rider obviously did her best to keep her composure during the hectic parts' :biggrin3: along with 'no requirement for horse to salute' - which had a well thought out '2' for mark for each halt :redface3:

To be fair to neddy tho, we did go clear SJ & XC tho & finished in 15th on stressage marks :)
 
On doing an intro (I'm 24 btw) on my horse who at the time was in & out of work before we realised how ruined her stifle was. I have a polka dot pink stock & a patent black bridle with a thin strand of diamontes. All the comments refereed to was about how I shouldn't wear pink for dressage & how I had too much bling.
The first comment on down the centre line said 'too much bridle bling' the last judges note - all it said was re - think the pink stock. This was at a big venue near me & I got 59% I've been back after her surgery etc wearing the same things & got 71% with no mention about bling.
 
miss_c said:
A really daft one, but I get annoyed when judges refer to Genie as 'he' in their comments... Yes she's a cob with a neck to put some stallions to shame, but at the top of the sheet it says 'MISS Congeniality'!!! Like I said, daft, but annoys me nonetheless!
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The judge probably wont even have known what your pony was called. They usually only ha e time to scribble their comments on the bottom before the next one is hovering to start. I used to write quite a lot and you dont really get time to chat about the horse/rider.
 
ilvpippa said:
On doing an intro (I'm 24 btw) on my horse who at the time was in & out of work before we realised how ruined her stifle was. I have a polka dot pink stock & a patent black bridle with a thin strand of diamontes. All the comments refereed to was about how I shouldn't wear pink for dressage & how I had too much bling.
The first comment on down the centre line said 'too much bridle bling' the last judges note - all it said was re - think the pink stock. This was at a big venue near me & I got 59% I've been back after her surgery etc wearing the same things & got 71% with no mention about bling.
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Some judges are still very conservative! I wouldn't take it personally :) I like a bit of bling for dressage, and as for he pink? why not!
 
Most of the time I have had nothing but useful and honest comments. Honest yes but always written in a pleasant way or qualified later in the judges comments. I find them useful and allow my trainer to read. I am only doing low level stuff at the moment. My little horse has an issue with his hocks related to his growth spurts and we are taking things really slowly. If you are riding at intro being judged like you are riding at Hicksted, Grand Prix level is not useful so I find negative sheets/judges, of which I have met only one, to be useless and unessary.
 
flaxen said:
The judge probably wont even have known what your pony was called. They usually only ha e time to scribble their comments on the bottom before the next one is hovering to start. I used to write quite a lot and you dont really get time to chat about the horse/rider.
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Every judge I have ever written for both affiliated and unaffiliated has checked name of horse and rider before test even starts :) If in doubt, why not write 'they' and avoid getting it wrong? Like I said, a daft thing, but annoys me which is what this thread was asking.
 
My best was "rider had good glue". George was a FAB horse but a bit dramatic, and the indoor BD venue was a bit tight on between the boards and the wall. As we trotted round the outside he clipped a white board, and the other end moved into our path, and that scared the bejesus out of him.

The test did not go so well, I seem to remember a 3 loop serpentine where we launched from one side of the arena to the other with a huge leap. We had a halt at the judge and a rein back and as we set off backwards the sun came out and a sun spot appeared under him, so we leaped the (obviously 5 ft high) sun spot. I also seem to reccollect the simple change became a sea of bucks.

George was so FAB I just laughed my way through, took the poor mark and witty comment. Next test though he was far more with it, and got me 5 points, so no harm done.

I also do some judging, and try to give a good point eg Lovely active horse, then area for improvement eg unfortunately showing a lot of tension today, then another nice point eg tactfully ridden.

Never had to sink so low as to like the colour, but sometimes it is difficult to find the good point. It is great when it is Good opener, praise for way of going, praise for rider. Normally there is an area for improvement though.
 
My friend rides a chunky blagdon cob mare, comment 1st time out was 'would be nice if horse looked to be working harder than rider'!

Generally the judges seem to love the combo.

My lad is pure marmite and can do 2 prelim tests in 1 day at same venue and behave similarly in both and score 10% different from 1 judge to another!

My mare once got 'think horse would have prefered to see show jumps in the arena today'. True but we did try lol!
 
I once, many, many years ago had "perhaps you should consider taking up knitting" written on my test sheet. At the time I thought that was rude but now I can see the humour in it. Having in the intervening years become a dressage judge myself I know what it's like to be at a loss for encouraging words. Some people really SHOULD take up knitting........
 
lol i have had a lovely lazy Sunday and this thread has kept me entertained. Thank you all for your reply's.
 
Only time I got cross was when there were absolutely no comments on the sheet. One that I find amusing because I get it in winter is "lovely [willing, whatever] pony". She's not a pony, but is such a furball in winter that one could be forgiven for thinking she is one! :)
 
I did a few dressage tests on my old mare, i had her on loan at the time and her owners persuaded me to take her even though i didnt want to. The first ever test i did, i was terrified out of my mind! We walked round the outside and her eyes were on stalks at the boards, when i asked her to go close to them head on she jumped it and nearly launched me off. when we started she was still spooking at the boards, so we weaved down the center line, managed an ok test after she stopped trembling considering i was really having to hold her to the sides as she wanted to do the whole thing about a meter from the edges, once a bit of rubber hit the board and rebounded at her and she spooked. She managed to canter on one rein alright but the other way was a no-go. My comment for that one was 'Bravely Ridden', i was just glad they didnt say anything mean as i was so nervous anyway, it would have put me off forever, even though the whole thing was a mess and i knew it.

My second test i really practiced for, got white drainpipes out round the sides of the arena beforehand to get her used to them. Went in on the day of the test and she was very fidgety even though i was a bit more confident. We did a reasonable test, we did the best ever three loop serpentine we have ever managed to do (the highest scored movement too) but she just didnt feel like she was really making much effort as her eyes were still on stalks because of the boards and this arena had potted plants which were apparently going to come alive and eat her but between the plants she did go better, it was a case of having a lovely circle followed by a spook, followed by a nice straight trot, followed by a wiggle, followed by a very good free walk, followed by a nap to the gate. So altogether it was an interesting test. My comment for that one was 'A lovely horse, but not always attending!' Summed the day up pretty well i thought!

Thankfully the owner of the horse didn't make me go to any more dressage tests! We just had fun at home instead and i taught her to jump xD
 
I used to have a chestnut Arab X mare. She was almost pure Arab and had very typically Arab paces. I used to do the odd unaffiliated dressage with her as that was what my friends at the yard were in to. Most of the time I got nice comments about her accuracy and obedience - she wouldn't go in much of an outline but she was very obedient in other ways and her transitions were always spot on and we were only doing Prelims anyway. However, on one occasion the judge was a crusty old Colonel something or other. Not only did he give us the lowest marks we'd ever been given despite the fact that Moon had behaved impeccably but he didn't write a single comment, not even in the box at the bottom. The low marks I could have accepted if there'd been a bit of constructive commenting to go with them. Clearly he considered an Arab not worthy of his precious attention. I gave up doing dressage with her after that unless I was doing a One Day Event.
 
I'm sure many other people have had this, but my favourite comments were along the lines off "he will relax more when he grows up" etc etc.... Bob was 14 years old at the time :p
 
Best and kindest comment was out eventing. Judge wrote very little on my sheet but with the wry comment "horse clearly looking forward to her XC"!
 
My now semi retired welsh cob was said to be in "too high an outline for a prelim test ans she should go much more long and low at that level"
 
We have over the years had the following

"Eating the flower displays not necessary at this level"

"Half pass down the centre line not required" ( the photographer was on her 'wrong side')

Good doer (Just dropped a huge pile at the halt for 5 seconds in front of the judges table)

Jumping not required (Mare decided that the dressage boards were for jumping)

Well sat -what glue did you use (after a huge bucking session)
 
Two comments that made me smile rather than feel cross. "Lovely partnership with lots of potential for the future" Horse was 23 and this was one of our last tests as he became too stiff to school. I still have him aged 27 but now retired. I also got a 3 for submission with my very naughty dressage schoolmaster, judges comment was "not playing ball today,naughty boy!" He now has a new life as a hack and is loving life.
 
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