First time scribing

I volunteered as a scribe today at the Amberlea Dressage Show., It was my first time scribing, but I have a lot of experience reading the work of scribes, so it seemed like a reasonable task to attempt.

For those of you that don't know, a scribe is someone that marks down the scores and comments that the judge awards the rider and horse in a dressage class for each movement. Sometimes the movement scored involves a few things; a transition, a circle, and/or a gait change. Sometimes though, their are multiple scores for one movement, such as a circle with a canter transition may have a score for the circle, and a score for the transition.

The judge I was working for was an older lady from Michigan who was extremely patient with me, and a good teacher! I learned not only about scribing, but also about the common issues at each level.

The only negative about her is that she has very shaky hands so couldn't write the general comments...I had  counted on that time to make sure I knew the next test and to give my writing wrist a break, but having to write the entire time, combined with VERY tight ride times, left very little time to recover. I think my index finger is permanently dented!

The lower levels were all pretty good to judge, and I was able to watch a little as well; I scribed for training, 2nd, 3rd, and 4rth. Then we got to Prix St. George and FEI Juniors. That was less fun. Many of the movements have two different scores and come up extremely quickly. It was very confusing and felt like a rapid fire final exam!  Not much time to watch there.

The most common comments:
- Behind the vertical (this refers to the horse's head. Behind the vertical often went with lack of engagement. )
- Curling behind (this refers to the horse's entire neck over arching with nose down and towards chest)
- Needs more engagement, particularly in the downward transitions.(horse needs to march and flex with hocks as it steps up and under to slow down...rather than get stilted and stiff)
- Hollow (this refers to the horse's back, and usually comes with a high head and flippy front legs)
- Resistant (horse arguing with rider)
- Do not go into corner on circle. (the first quarter of a circle at A should not look the same as a regular corner at A)
- more downward stretch needed (on free walk/stretch trot).
- No change (when lengthening, extending, or doing mediums, the horse needs to clearly get longer...not quicker, and then come back, at the designated spots. If your horse's forward gaits are not great, then you can cheat a little by making sure you are extra balanced back going into and out of the lengthening/medium/extension).

For rider comments, heels up and toes too far out were the most common comments.

The judge also commented on the general poor quality of the horses, and that people tended to have their saddles much too forward.

It was also interesting that the worse the test was, the nicer the general comment was "Team has lots of potential".

I also learned that the judge or scribe needs to make note of the rider's number...yet most rider's use the little bridle numbers, put them on the left side, and then enter the ring to the left so the number isn't visible to the judge or scribe! The polite thing to do is to say your number as you ride by, but not one person did so. The next best thing is to use the big numbers the show provides, and rider so the officials can clearly see the number.

One horse was eliminated for being lame, one for having boots on, and one because it started to rear mid test.

All in all very interesting, educational, and something I would like to do again!

Clare rode Mags today, but her class wasn't until after 5pm, so I was home by then! They moved all the classes indoors to keep the horses off the soupy footing outside.

Karen