End of Year Championships Giving You Wrong Sort of Blues?

Do you feel you were unfairly judged at a championship? Did the scores reflect the average of the scores you attained during the year? Was your horse's performance as good as it had been previously? Was the judging accurate and fair?

IT ALL BEGINS HERE 

Our thanks to Willowview Hill Farm for the use of this photo of their DWBx Gambol's Georgy Girl

As the show season winds down the year end championships showcase the culmination of the a lot of hard work and dedication from equestrians in all disciplines. The horses may begin to look a little weary, the riders are stressed, and the judges are tired. Championship classes are traditionally scored stiffer than regular classes as we all know. The variety of scores though are sometimes hard to decipher.

There are always disappointments during these events, but hopefully they come because of rider error or plain bad luck and are not the responsibility of show management or judges. I appreciate that judges work very hard and do a sometimes thankless task, but in the world of sport horse breed championships I think the judges should be scoring the same animal similarly throughout the season. After all, given that a bad performance may happen occasionally, the horse and his conformation have remained the same. How can two or three judges at an event score the horse almost identically and another miss the mark by a wide margin.

Low scores in regional championship year end events that result from poor judging harm the industry. As those owners, handlers and horses move on to the national events and horse of the year award points it is imperative that their championship scores are not adversely low perhaps because a judge is to put it kindly, misguided or at worst acting with political favor. Horse breeders measure their breed choices and their own young horses by these very important scores, and keeping the playing field (arena) level and accurate is critical.

So a shout out to all regional championship show managements, please check back over the scores in your breeding divisions over the past few years and be careful to eliminate judges that score outside the curve ( either too high or too low), and protect the breeders in your area from being adversely affected. Bad judges should be weaned out. There are plenty of dedicated, knowledgeable judges out there that would be delighted to attend your next event. While I realize that we can say about low scores  " That is Showing, " at this level there is no reason to have judges that don't know or in some cases deliberately down score at a major event for political reasons. This is a seriously expensive arena to trot around, and owners deserve better.

The Daft Things Horse Trainers Say

Without question the 'daftest' thing I have heard a trainer say in a very long time came out of the mouth of one of the leading U.S.A. Western trainers, Linda Parelli. The reason apparently that Linda does not wear any kind of head protection when participating in one of the most dangerous sports for concussion/head injuries is because it would ' upset her balance.' Guess she isn't the rider she is cracked up to be?

She does also state that her husband Pat Parelli, who apparently doesn't worry over 'bad hair' will wear a cowboy hat, which of course provides protection only from the sun, agrees with their 'pro-choice' attitude when it comes to their students. Such wonderful leadership.

In New York State the bill recently enacted mandates that every rider under eighteen years of age must wear suitable head protection when mounted on a horse. Naturally this has caused an outcry amongst Western riders, who deem the barrel racing folks and other western riders should be free to make their own decisions. At our Delaware State Fair this August, a mother/wife was thrown from her horse around a turn barrel racing and airlifted to hospital with a major head injury. We all hear of such injuries every day. So why are Western riders so resistant to protecting their noggins.

Other folks that have suffered from concussions and associated head trauma from riding accidents that have been fortunate enough to live and walk, report permanent vertigo as a result of their injuries. So Mrs. Parelli, I guess if you are worried about a helmet affecting your balance, maybe you should think about that.

As trainers our students look to us to lead. I would love to see more ASTM helmets suitable for Western riders. Perhaps the Parelli's could help design one that would assuage their balance issues and not muss their hair? Seriously folks. Wake up. Because if you don't you may have a day when you fall from a horse and you never wake up again.