Dear dressage competition organizers - a mini rant

[Fuzzypuff]

So yes its not ideal you dont get a toilet break or many drinks, but you are there because you enjoy it and the organiser/steward isnt doing it for the money either (its not well paid I can assure you!). If the drinks bother you that much bring your own flask or a bottle of water, and try and spot a moment in the schedule you can go to the toilet (ideally a big-ish break between classes) and run for it. rest assured the organiser hasnt been to the toilet either, hasnt had a drink in hours nor have they sat down all day.

As a judge I expect to have breaks scheduled in as per BD rules and I expect to have refreshments provided, at least some water and a small snack at the end of the class. You will find it a lot easier to get good reliable judges if you always make sure they are properly looked after. You may not be well paid but you ARE paid, judges are often doing this in addition to their own full time job, horses and family commitments and are only paid expenses and in the case of BD competitions £1 per horse.

Yes judges do it because they enjoy it and want to give back to the sport but do bear in mind that it is not that easy to become a BD judge, they have to fund the training themselves and use their own time to do it (often taking holiday from day jobs), travel miles to the training and then to the competitions they judge, after having sorted or possibly paid someone to do their own horses on that day. After all of that they do deserve proper breaks and refreshment and if they are not treated appropriately they will just stop accepting gigs at certain show centres.

 

[kc100]

As a judge I expect to have breaks scheduled in as per BD rules and I expect to have refreshments provided, at least some water and a small snack at the end of the class. You will find it a lot easier to get good reliable judges if you always make sure they are properly looked after. You may not be well paid but you ARE paid, judges are often doing this in addition to their own full time job, horses and family commitments and are only paid expenses and in the case of BD competitions £1 per horse.

Yes judges do it because they enjoy it and want to give back to the sport but do bear in mind that it is not that easy to become a BD judge, they have to fund the training themselves and use their own time to do it (often taking holiday from day jobs), travel miles to the training and then to the competitions they judge, after having sorted or possibly paid someone to do their own horses on that day. After all of that they do deserve proper breaks and refreshment and if they are not treated appropriately they will just stop accepting gigs at certain show centres.

We always put a plate of biscuits in the judges box and they do get a couple of drinks throughout the day (judge and writer last weekend got at least 2 cups of tea and were welcome to water if they wanted it) - if we get time we always get them some lunch too, we'd never want our judges to go hungry or not have a drink! But my point was that organisers always try their best to get judges/writers as much as they can, but sometimes it may not be all that frequent. As someone who wrote a lot before my new job I brought food & drink with me, out of common sense really because you can clearly see how busy the organisers are.

I work full time as well as my 2nd job as a show secretary, have horses to ride myself, and a small business completely non-horse related on the side too, take days holiday to do the show secretary job sometimes, we are all busy people typically in the horsey world so I dont think it should be a competition about how is busier than who, its just about understanding each other's roles, not pointing the finger at each other and simply doing our best to make a competition run smoothly - judges, writers, stewards, organisers.....we all do tough jobs for the love of it and we should always take into account how busy each other are.

Our judges come back time and time again to our venue and are always happy with the treatment they get with us so I can only presume we cant be that bad

Lets just all be considerate of each other, do our best and not point the finger if something is not quite perfect - after all its generally the competitiors themselves that can be a big pain in the bum not the judge/writer/steward/organiser!

 

[Tnavas]

Something that our Pony Club does is to have members either bring a plate of food or we have a couple of parents who's responsibility is to provide refreshments to the judges and writers.

This should be part of the organising committees tasks.

You cannot expect judges and writers to work for hours on end without suitable refreshment.

We have - In a square bucket
A Thermos
A container of milk
Containers of Coffee, Tea, Sugar
Cups, Spoons
A container with food, usually a couple of sandwiches each, scone, or muffin

When we have a full day of competitions, the lunch time refreshments may include hot sausage rolls, soup

It is not hard to organise these - they can mostly be prepared the night before.