Unaff Dressage - Your thoughts

[sarahs]

Yesterday I went to watch and support a couple of the girlies at a local unaff dressage comp, wont name where but you can probably guess where from my location, and I was horrified!!!!!!
2 of the 3 judges where young girls - one I have known for about 15 years and know she hasn’t the first idea - she has competed unify locally at Prelim level and that’s it, the other was a girl that works at the place. One friend had the girl that I know judging and her comments on her sheet make no sense at all, for example - coming down centre lien - spooking - when the horse wasn’t ! And giving a 7 for another movement and then putting a really negative comment??
The girl that works at this place that was judging - well what can I say!!!!! Her behaviour disgusted me! I was distracted from watching one friends test by the girl laughing - the horse was going beautifully, she hardly seem to look at the horse, wrote 3 one word comments on the sheet and that was it!
I was then reading for another friend ( I know im making myself out to sound like I have a lot of friends! ) but whilst reading other people watching the test said that she was laughing again and barely watched the test!
My point is - to do a test yesterday was £12, and apart from the "Ring Practice” you get I really didn’t see the point! I know some riding clubs have very good judges for their comps and you can get some very constructive comments and correct scoring but I was really let down by what I say yesterday. I really am not good enough to compete aff dressage but would rather be the worst in the class with a ar*e whipping sheet then have a young girl not paying attention, talking to the writer ( who wasn’t writing much) having a laugh and paying £12 for the privilege !
Has anyone else experienced this? Also does anyone know what riding clubs in Surrey have good judges for their comps.
Rant over !

 

[Seahorse]

That really is dreadful. Can you complain to someone?

 

[sarahs]

Well the person who is in charge of the events at this place is the person who was acting so badly ! I personally think she has a bad attitude at the best of times !

 

[Thistle]

I would write to the show organisers asking how the judges are qualified. You are the paying customer.

 

[sarahs]

Thistle - Good point - that might catch them out ! I wasnt competing yesterday but was defo going to get some much needed dressage practice in over the winter for next years event season! Even if it was something like £6 a class I would feel that they were ripping people off but £12 !!!!!!!!!!!! no no no !

 

[kizzywiz]

I can't believe this, are they having a laugh!!? I've competed here a lot, & last winter their dressage was great, they had listed judges which is something I would look for when entering. I am about to affiliate, & definately don't want to pay £12 to be judged by a kid at college!!! I will be asking the question before sending in any entries for sure. I agree with Sarahs, the person in charge has got a bad attitude, she's more interested in eating biscuits than getting the scores up for the people who have paid to be there. I'm glad you posted this & brought it to all our attention.

 

[lilym]

and parissiene girl wonders why us mere mortals bother to affiliate hmmmmm......

 

[sarahs]

Kizzywiz - you are so on my wave length !!! The biscuit comment got me !
Another forum member was there to watch the same friend, and when I asked her how the test was she said that she didnt watch it all cause she was watching the "cookie monsters" (my words not hers) behaviour !
As I said in post - I would much rather affiliate and be the scum of the class then pay her my £12.

 

[burtie]

[ QUOTE ]
and parissiene girl wonders why us mere mortals bother to affiliate hmmmmm......

[/ QUOTE ]

I have a similar view to PG but then around where we both compete the venues and judges are largely the same so little point paying the additional fees for affiliated unitl really ready. It seems we are lucky.

 

[Shipley]

This is why I affiliated and I did a couple of unaffiliated at the weekend before the next level and again they were unqualified but at tlreast they rode to a higher level there marks were on the same wave length to how I felt it went. But at the end of the test the judge got out and told me I must leave the arena at A and would dock me the marks, I politly advised her to read the sheet and she went 'Oh' and got in the car. My collectives were not very nice.

 

[Pasha]

PM me! I'm on the committee of a Riding Club based in Surrey and we only use BD Listed Judges! We have a Winter Dressage Series running until March with tests from Walk & trot to Novice... x

Edited to say - we only charge £10 for non-members (£7 for members)

 

[Madam_max]

Eh?? I have never heard P_G say that

 

[kerilli]

oh dear. this happens elsewhere too...
a friend of mine competed somewhere recently and said to me "you'll never ever guess who was dressage judging..." well, i couldn't believe it, the woman is completely rubbish, a very bad riding club standard if that, knows less than nothing, and is now apparently judging unaff dressage. i think i'm going to go along for a laugh and see what she says!
although the judging at affiliated can be dodgy too... i got marks and comments for 2 x 20m canter circles that i actually i forgot to do once... no beep of horn, no error of course, just comments and marks...

i had the test on vid too, definitely no canter circles...!

 

[shelly018]

That really isn't fair, you've paid your money you deserve to be judged by someone who knows what they are doing. I know it's hard for organisers to get judges, but they do need to consider the standard of people they are asking and not just ask someone they know will jump at the chance. Lets face it, a young girl who "thinks" they know alot would revel in the status, but they should also think whether they have the ability and how they would feel if they were in that situation.

 

[Doublethyme]

If you aren't too far up in Surrey, the summer unaff. series at Hickstead is generally good judging wise, plus the Step by Step series run at Royal Leisure and Sands.