By Piper Klemm, Ph.D.
When I try to explain to everyone how much actual judging matters, it is a given that most competitors in most divisions are trying to win at some level. Maybe they train their horse to win tomorrow, maybe win today, but at some level they are working toward a standard that the judges are setting. Course designers have an integral role to play in this–judges can only judge what is in front of them–but when we talk about horse welfare and our future, we often get heated discussing judges because it is simply so important.
Every single class in every single division that is judged at any horse show is a data point for trainers on how to train their horse. How quiet their horse needs to be. How adjustable their equitation horse needs to be. How perfect it can be. Training is based on what is winning. Many horse trainers can train horses to do just about anything, they simply have to know what the standard is.
And the standard, I would argue, over the year and over most divisions is easy to follow. In general flow and consistency is prioritized over a brilliant jumper, whether we agree with that or not. Somehow we all agree that slow is equivalent to safe, and safety is prioritized in many divisions. The curve of what is expected and how to train a horse is based on these thousands, tens of thousands, and hundreds of thousands of data points consisting of every single ribbon, score, and placing given in any given year.
Simply put, the more someone judges, the more impact they have. Prestigious horse shows are both more scrutinized and more desirable to win, so those data points have much more impact in shaping trends and the bell curve than a local show. Someone who judges national or premiere shows for a few dozen weeks a year has tremendous say in the future of our sport and the welfare of our horses. Equally important, someone who judges only a few weeks, but major events has a tremendous say in the future of our sport and the welfare of our horses.
Which is why the most important week at the Winter Equestrian Festival is Week 6- World Champion Hunter Rider (WCHR) “Hunter Week.” It is the home of the $150,000 Hunter Spectacular under the lights and off all the weeks in the circuit, it’s the one week that everyone who is anyone in South Florida is aiming for to peak at and have their horses feeling their best, going their best, and their riders riding their best.
Week 6, heavily endorsed by a large showing of USHJA participation and staff, is essential in setting the trends for course design and judging standard throughout the year for hunters, who peak many other times including The Devon Horse Show, Junior Hunter Finals, Derby Finals, Capital Challenge, Pennsylvania National, and more.
Conventionally, a rail falling to the ground in the hunter ring is a score of 45 or, if relevant, a sum of 42-48 based on ordering other rounds with rails. This is not stated or required in the rulebook. Whether this is always the correct answer has been discussed regularly on The Plaid Horse and on the Plaidcast, but until Friday, February 13th, it remained a de facto convention regardless of any other aspect of the hunter round. In the International Ring during Hunter Week, a hunter with a rail down received a score of 72.
It is unclear how many points deducted by the rail caused from the intended score and all eyes were on the arena as the jump crew picked it off the ground. Judges Alex Jayne and Mary Eufemia, who already made headlines this week awarding Daydream a score of 98, made the game changing call in the show ring.
In other shows or scenarios, scores have flashed on the screen where judges missed the rail and have been adjusted to 45 based on a radio call or seeing the jump crew picking up the rail. This did not happen in this case and the score holds on ShowGroundsLive and is entered into the permanent record as the most current standard of our sport. Rails are officially scored at the judges’ discretion both in theory in the rulebook and in practice judging in one of the biggest rings in the country for hunters.
