t seems that every year, after the Winter Equestrian Festival (Fla.), I hear the same complaints about the lack of educated, knowledgeable and available judges. The difference now is that, for the last year, a diverse group of dedicated professionals has been creating a solution to this problem.

The Special Judges Group was formed as a committee of the U.S. Hunter Jumper Association to examine the entire judging system, including the process of acquiring a license to judge, the continuing-education requirements, and the re-strictions imposed on judges, especially in the area of conflict of interest.

A Special Stewards Group has also been created to go through the same process for the stewarding system.

The Special Judges Group has met several times over the past year and met again this month to formulate and submit their rule-change proposals, which I believe will go a long way toward fixing many of the challenges our judging system faces.

In Florida this year, Ronnie Beard and a group of interested horsemen organized some meetings to provide input. At the meeting I attended, several members of the Special Judges Group were also present, and the issues discussed were exactly the issues that are being addressed by the USHJA committee. While everyone on the committee wants to hear from members, Ronnie has joined this group to act as a conduit for input from the equestrian community.

The Special Judges Group hasn’t been a secret either. They held a nicely attended meeting at the USHJA convention in Miami and presented their findings and work list for this year. In addition, articles have appeared in the USHJA newsletters and other equestrian publications about this program.

As with any change, there is a procedure to be followed, and this is for good reason. At times, those competing at our sport’s top level forget that changes they wish to make affect the other levels of competitors, as well as other breeds and disciplines. Judging affects all levels, from the AA-rated level all the way to the unrecognized level.

Yes, unrecognized! In addition to utilizing the USEF rules, more and more unrecognized competitions are using USEF-licensed officials, and it’s the duty of the USEF to make sure these individuals are educated and properly trained to be licensed officials.

Creating a new program requires rule changes, and rule changes have a specific process that must be followed. Rule-change proposals have specific due dates, must be completed on the appropriate forms, and are then made available to the entire membership for their input before going forward for approval. This is a sound process, which is especially important in this case, as judging is such an integral part of our industry and affects all members.

Additionally, in writing the rule changes for the new system, we must be cognizant of the affect on other breeds and disciplines, which may require certain tailoring of the rule-change proposals to only affect the hunter and jumper disciplines. As you can see, an unstructured and cavalier approach will not work and will actually impede forward movement.

Change is not instantaneous. It takes time, patience, determination and hard work to navigate our rule-change system and to see a project to fruition.

Several areas need to be considered in our judging system. The first is how you get a license. The current system has two options. One is the old way of learner judging and working your way up the ladder through the program. This has produced many very good judges and usually separates the wheat from the chaff.

The other option is the fast-track program. I firmly believe that the reason so few have attained their cards using this approach is that the process is backwards. The USEF, as the licensing organization, has a responsibility to make sure that potential judges not only have the horsemanship background, but are also capable of the bookkeeping part of the job.

The fast track is set up to allow an applicant to bypass the early learner and r-rated requirement stages of judging, where you get to practice your craft under the tutelage of R-rated judges. Once you receive your r-rated card, you continue through the program as usual to receive your “R”. If it were the other way around, there would be more successes in the fast-track program. You should complete your learner and r-rated requirements and then, due to your accomplishments, get to advance up to the R-rated status.

I know the committee has been working on several ways to make it easier to navigate the licensing system, especially for our busy professionals, and they’ll be coming forward with solutions.

We also need to consider the education of our judges and our public. For the past few years, I have been involved in the USEF Hunter, Equitation and Jumper Clinics program as a member of the USEF Continuing Education Committee. Many improvements have occurred over the past four years.

This year, USEF and USHJA officials worked together on the judges’ clinic in Wellington, Fla., which received the highest marks of any clinic to date. This new partnership is launching us on the path we need to take to be more involved in the curriculum, location, frequency and panelists of these clinics. The USEF is, and will remain, the licensing entity for officials at recognized competitions in the United States. It’s important that we continue to maintain our productive working relationship with the federation staff involved in the licensing of officials.

We must also endeavor to demystify the judging process for our parents, trainers, exhibitors and spectators. And we must include them in our educational opportunities.

Continuing education of our officials is also a serious and important component. There are many judges who aren’t involved in the day-to-day training and showing of horses. It’s easy to get “out of the loop,” and we need to create better educational tools for the continuing-education aspect of the program.

And it’s important for our licensed officials to act appropriately at the clinics and at other times. This brings me to my last topic: Perception–how other judges, exhibitors, spectators, trainers and competitors view judges.

In easing restrictions on judges, it’s extremely important that judges take their job seriously and act professionally at all times. Easing the restrictions will require increasing the penalties for unprofessional behavior. We’ve all been in a restaurant and seen a judge having dinner with an exhibitor who may be showing in front of him or her the next day. While in most cases this is completely innocent, it leaves onlookers with a bad taste in their mouth and reduces the credibility of the judge and our judging system.

The equestrian public is already up in arms over the behavior of some of our licensed officials, and they certainly will not tolerate continued abuses if the restrictions are amended. Fortunately, it’s a very small minority of people who’ve cast judges and judging in a bad light.

Use of cell phones while judging is another behavior that must be stopped. We have a rule that says this is not allowed; yet stories abound about the abuse of cell phones by judges. I just cannot figure out why exhibitors, stewards and other judges don’t demand that this rule be enforced.

But we as a community must not tolerate the bashing and condemnation of our licensed officials. Why would anyone want to judge when all you hear is complaints, which typically have no cause other than you didn’t pin the complainers’ horses? This serious problem needs to be curtailed.

Just as exhibitors need to send judges’ evaluations to the USEF, the exhibitors also need to let show officials know when the bashing is happening so that it can be addressed on site. There are systems for exhibitors to use to report their complaints, and bashing the judges at the in-gate isn’t part of the system.

Yes, I have strong opinions about our judging system. Most of all, I have a determination and passion, which is shared by the members of the Special Judges Group, to see our sport receive the recognition and respect it deserves from those involved in it and those outside it. As this pertains to our judging system, it requires us to provide the equestrian community and public with a pool of available, educated, knowledgeable and professional judges who bring integrity to our sport and command the respect of all equestrians.

When these rule changes are made available on the USEF website, please take the time to read, think about and respond to us about them. It’s your sport; get involved.