Holding up the flanks were Lorraine MacDonald, chairman of the Dressage Canada Officials Committee, and Cara’s assistant, Christine Peters.

Thirty-something judges from 13 countries signed up to listen to the wisdom delivered by Elizabeth McMullen, Canada’s one and only FEI O-rated dressage judge, and Stephen Clarke, England’s judge of the same distinction. The combination of these two proved a real hit.

Elizabeth and Stephen played “good cop, bad cop” with a good measure of humor, and each was incredibly generous in sharing knowledge and honest with their advice.

I’ve been to a good many seminars and forums over the years. All of them teach you something, but there are those that leave you with a depression in your heart and sand in your mouth, and then there are those that make you skip back to your plane. Canada was a lift and an inspiration.

One of the themes of the seminar was a recurring reminder from Stephen Clarke that dressage judges are quality controllers, not policemen.

He made that point several times, and I agree it is very important that we, as judges, never think, “I got you” when a competitor makes a mistake. We need to look at every performance as an attempt to reach the highest goals of our sport, and we should see ourselves as guides who show the way.

He also pointed out that every number you deduct from the perfect 10 deducts 10 percent from that competitor’s score, so we’d better be able to justify such “unarmed robbery.”

For a couple of years now, the Federation Equestre Internationale has required that its judges’ seminars be held at major dressage events, and the Blainville show in Quebec was a perfect venue. It served as the last qualifier for the Canadian Pan Am Games team and brought most of Canada’s best riders to the ring.

The judges had plenty of opportunity to watch and discuss the “regular” FEI-level rides, plus a fair number of good junior riders. Actually, we paid a great deal of attention to the junior tests and the new young riders tests, for which the amount of collection expected is rarely in evidence.

A majority of the comments concerned the lack of self-carriage, balance and engagement in the tests we observed. Quite often the aids were not well-timed, which made the horses seem to be chased by the driving aids, rather than supported by the half-halts.

Several of the junior horses had no semblance of collected canter, but were instead displaying a stilted little amble that was “collected in the neck only,” as the clinicians pointed out. This was a matter of concern, since we don’t want kids to “learn” a canter that’s not truly in three beats or miss the point of how their riding affects the horse’s basic gaits.

But we asked, “How much can you expect from these kids who are ‘just learning?'”

“Well,” said Stephen, “we should expect as much from the youngsters in Canada as from any others, wherever they ride in the world. Tell them the truth, educate them early, and give them opportunities most of us did not have.”

We went through some regular practice sessions, each of the judges giving comments and scores as the rides were in progress, and then the clinicians had us narrate the rides without giving scores. This is a good test of your ability to quickly assess the quality of each movement and verbally communicate your observations.

Another interesting exercise was to say the actual meaning of the score, instead of giving a number. For example, “satisfactory” instead of 6 and “good” in place of 8.

This drove home what we’re really trying to express when we give these scores. Someone mentioned that today the number 5 is often given for movements that used to receive a 4 and, therefore, no longer truly reflects the truth. Words like “marginal” instead of “sufficient” would tell the competitor that 5 is a pretty weak score and not such a safe place to be.

Using videotapes for the theory sessions was creative and helpful. Cara shot videotapes of a number of rides we’d judged “live,” and then we relived the tests in the classrooms with the ability to rerun the controversial parts. This was especially helpful for discussing the freestyles, which we worked over both with and without music to better compare the technical aspect of the ride to the artistic.

We judges have different methods of judging the freestyle. So Stephen gave us a few guidelines.

We also discussed the problem of being in a position where most of the movements are performed going away from you and were cheered by the observation that you’re not out of a job even when sitting at M. From behind, you can judge the straightness of the horse, the regularity of the gait, the transitions, and the amount of impulsion and engagement by how much the horse comes off the ground.

The Canadians know how to entertain, and the climax on Friday evening was a fabulous party for competitors, spectators, officials and judges, numbering in the hundreds. Auctioning of the official panel of judges was a lucrative stroke of genius that drew more than $2,000 each for Axel Steiner and Maribel de Quinzanos from Mexico. Axel tried hard to be the top prize, but Maribel was cuter.