Q – What is the procedure for picking the judges for the $250k class?
Terry Schroeder: “Every horse owner nominates three judges. Every judge was assigned a color and number of a bingo ball. On June 6th in Des Moines, Iowa at the Iowa Quarter Horse Show, the balls are then put into an air bingo machine. We drew the balls randomly and the names were put in a call order. The judges are then called in that order to see if they would like to judge the Equine Sports Medicine $250,000 Challenge.”
How is this year different from previous years?
This year we did not publicize the names of the judges in call order so that it will be a complete secret when they step out into the arena on Saturday, August 16, 2008.
Why the secrecy?
We feel with a class of this stature it is important to keep the integrity and suspense at a high level. We expect the judges to keep their commitment to the Celebration confidential. If it leaks out a judge has indicated he/she is judging the class, we will immediately release that judge from his contract and hire the next judge on the list. In fact, I do not even know who the judges are. There are actually only two people with this knowledge.
To what lengths have you gone to in the past to insure that the names of the judges remain confidential?
To be honest, I don’t even know who the judges are. For some of the other classes, we hire a surprise judge just to mix things up. Last year Gretchen Mathes was hired to be a surprise judge for the Hylton 3 Year and older Maiden Western Pleasure class. About 30 minutes before the class was to start, Gretchen called me and asked if someone going to pick her up. I asked her why, and that is when she told me that she was the surprise judge. I sent a car to pick her up where we had the other judges housed at and there was no Gretchen. Gretchen then called me again and asked where the driver was and I told her it was outside in the drive looking for her. She indicated there was no one there! That is when I realized we had her staying at a different location. So, in all honesty, these judges’ identities are kept secret, even from me!
Anything else you want to add?
We do our best to maintain the integrity of the judges of the Reichert Celebration, not because of mistrust, but because we do trust our judges to judge the class as they see it. That is why we hired them, they are the professionals.
