First Jump, Adding Strides, & More: Ask the Judge

The first jump is a single towards the ingate and the rider makes a circle prior to going to the first jump. What are your thoughts on this?

Not good thoughts, but it is allowed. A rider may feel they need to circle in order to relax their horse, but the first jump towards the ingate really means get right to it! In an equitation class or a handy hunter class I would penalize it more.

When a horse or pony wins over fences, does this give them an edge in the hack?

No, it is a completely different class and they need to move well in order to place.

One horse or pony adds a stride in a line. Another one does the correct number of strides, but then has a bad or dangerous jump. Who goes ahead?

For me, safety is priority: a safely added stride beats a bad or questionable jump.

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What is your take on a horse that whinnies or nickers while on course?

I expect him to be focused on his job and not be so distracted, so taking this into consideration, it doesn’t go in your favour. I certainly wouldn’t eliminate him, but an equal round minus the “call of the wild” will go ahead.

Why don’t a lot more good horse people work toward getting their judge’s license, and of those that do, why do so many of them fail to make really good judges?

The majority of good horsepeople have a healthy respect for the skills and discipline required to be a judge. In my opinion, it boils down to one issue: multi-tasking. In order to judge well, the individual must be able to keep track of 60 or more rounds while documenting each performance accurately. This is particularly difficult to accomplish when we consider that even though the system involves using quick and easy symbols, it is very easy to miss faults and errors if the judge is spending most of his or her time recording and not watching. Knowledge of the sport is rarely a problem… but book-keeping and keeping track of everything can be too much for some.