Anyone who has taken the journey of becoming a horse show judge finds out that this lifestyle is truly a journey.
I have been showing horses for 50 years, but being a judge has been an amazing adventure and challenge.
While I wanted to write about judging horse shows, I didn’t want to talk about judging. I wanted to talk about the adventure of judging.
After 30 years of having the honor of judging for AQHA and 27 years for NSBA and NRHA, I have accumulated many stories.
Before I sat down to write this article, I asked several judge friends to send me some of their own stories, but, who knew, judges are busy! So, I’ll jump right in with my stories, hoping to prompt more judges to start telling their own.
Traveling Abroad
I started writing a journal when I first judged in Australia. I judged a wonderful three-day show: the New South Wales Championship near Sydney, Scone to be exact. I decided to start a journal frankly because I was traveling alone, and, well, I needed to do more than just read and watch movies. I have kept a journal on my judging trips ever since, starting in 1990.
Alright, back to Australia. I was flying out of Atlanta, and I lived and worked in Athens, Georgia at the time. I really had no idea how long a trip it would take, and had only been thinking about judging.
Flying from Atlanta to Los Angeles was around five hours; Los Angeles to Auckland, New Zealand twelve hours, and then Auckland to Sydney took about another three hours. If I’m right, there is an 18-hour time zone difference between the East Coast of United Sates to Sydney. Regardless, this trip was long!
When I arrived in Auckland, they would not let us off the plane before spraying the inside of the plane; they had to kill all the bugs we brought with us down under.
I had a three-hour layover in Auckland, and, then, it was off to Sydney. I was still very excited and thankfully wasn’t extremely tired yet. I arrived in Sydney midday.
Now remember, this trip occurred before cell phones existed as they do now, so of course, luckily, someone just picked me up. The funny thing is, I didn’t know a soul. I’ve reached exhaustion, and, yet, I jump right in the car and off we go. I’m not sure where we are going, but I’m excited to be there.
It has always been interesting how I trust someone completely who picks me up for a horse show. I have judged all over the world, and I have no idea who they are and immediately I think, okay, let’s go!
Luckily for me, I am still here and have made an amazing amount of friends everywhere I have traveled. I think this system works because we in the horse industry trust fellow horse people.
In any case, the trip to Australia was a wonderful experience. I judged three days and took four days to see the sights with Kathy Peterson, who I consider a great horsewoman and friend. I’ve written to her over the many years that have passed since this experience.
It was a delightful trip, I experienced seeing most of the wild animals and birds of the region and the horse show was competitive and wonderful.
Lessons Learned
My first AQHA show was in Arab, Alabama. It was an outdoor show, and it was hot and rainy. At the facility there was small, and I mean, small indoor to use if it poured, which we did end up using for some classes, but we ran most classes in the rain.
Well, since I was nervous and trying to do a good job, I wanted to write a lot down. To illustrate, in one of the pleasure classes, I was writing so much that I forgot to lope one direction. I was the only judge that day, so kindly the exhibitors said, “Shouldn’t we lope this direction?” Well,of course, uggg…in any case, other than writing too much, I learned many lessons during that trip.
It’s important to note, that to do this job of horse judging, you must have some structure to your life. It takes a lot of organization and planning from accepting the job to signing the contract, to buying the plane ticket, to coordinating with another judge about arrival, to sharing a rental car, to knowing where you are driving to and what hotel you are using – all up until you actually enter the ring to judge.
Ultimately, this job is an experience for the organized, and when I tell these stories to my college students, they can’t believe I did this long ago without a cell phone. And I tell them, yes, I can still read a map and I still do, and yes, it was much more of an adventure.
Now, when I started my journey of judging it was before 9/11, so traveling was easier and more relaxed. In fact, I had it down to a science at the Atlanta airport: how long it took to drive, park and run to the plane. Back then there weren’t long security lines!
Today, it takes much more planning in order to make it to your destination on time. Security measures are much more strict. Besides the time it takes to get to the airport, there are also other challenges to traveling that I have encountered, such as losing my luggage.
I judged a reining show in Quebec years ago and never got my luggage over the four days I spent there. Luckily for me, Marilyn Randall had another blazer I could wear, and the second day I bought more pants and shirts. I always carry my hat can and my briefcase with me on the plane, so I had those items. I bought some toiletries and makeup, and I found that I was pretty much all set. We laughed a lot day-to-day during the show and it all went well.
The best and funniest part is that in Montreal I found my luggage and had clean clothes to take home. I just had to make do with what I had and be flexible to get my job done.
When it comes to packing, time of year dictates your clothes and when it is really hot or really cold, just like those showing, it is miserable. But we all have to live through it, judges and competitors alike.
At one of the best places to show in the winter, I remember I was so cold I could not feel anything on my body and had every blanket and everyone’s coat covering me. I even had a blanket wrapped around my head and hat, but we got the show judged.
Surviving Long Days and Travel Nightmares
Another challenging aspect of judging is getting through long shows. Those who show regularly in the industry know how tiring it can be to keep up with a long show, and judging a long show isn’t any easier.
Back in the early nineties, I judged several shows all night. One I remember was in Abilene, Texas. There were many cattle events after the regular show. The whole show started at 8:00 AM and ended at 7:00 AM and my flight was at 9:00 AM.
It took three days for me to recover. I know many of us judges enjoy and appreciate a large show, and it is part of the job. I’ll say it again: the judging part is easy; the recovery part is where it gets difficult.
Okay, so I’ll share just one more story.
This year I traveled from Raleigh to Albany, New York for a Friday through Sunday show, and I was scheduled to leave on a Thursday 10:30 AM flight through Reagan airport in DC.
I checked in and then found out that the flight was delayed one hour, which meant that I was going to miss my connection flight and, of course, there were no other flights to Albany. My next option was a 5:00 AM flight Friday to get into Albany at 9:00 AM.
I called Peg Edmondson who was the show manager and she said she could accommodate my travel delay. She’d have the other judge meet me at the airport and we’d start our show at noon Friday.
I arrived for my Friday 5:00 AM flight, checked in at 4:00 AM and, of course, this flight was canceled.
So next plan, I called Peg, and tried to replace myself with another judge, but everyone was busy.
Next flight option was a 3:30 PM departure through Philly. Okay, I could get there. But of course, my flight was delayed one hour.
Now I was freaking because I would miss my connection flight again. So I ran up to the desk and asked, “Look can I get to Albany?” They obviously could tell that I was freaking out, so they looked over to the next gate, and told me that a flight was going to DC, and there was a flight from DC to Albany that could get me into Albany at 8:00 PM. I asked them to get my bag off my previously scheduled flight and I headed to DC.
I made it to Albany and judged all weekend. The show management was kind enough to rearrange the classes so we had two full days with all the classes. Thank you, God. Talk about stress to work for the horse show.
All of us who travel and judge have many stories. We have plenty of stories regarding situations in the ring, but we have just as many about traveling to the show grounds.
I am grateful to God every day for allowing me to judge the horses I love, so when I hit a bump in the road of travel, I just smile and think, this one will make a great story.
