LYNCHBURG, Tenn. – Motlow State Community College hosted the two-day SHOW Judges’ Training on February 12-13, 2010. SHOW Director of Judges, Rollie Beard welcomed the 174 applicants and thanked them for their attendance. Beard pointed out that he had judged with many of those in attendance.

Beard recently appointed a judges’ committee that has worked hard to come up with new policies for 2010. Serving on the committee with Beard are Dr. Steve Mullins, Dr. Doyle Meadows, Winky Groover, Dee Cantrell, Leigh Bennett, Nathan Clark, Jeff Willis, Kathy Zeis, David Landrum, Frank Eichler and Mike Inman.

New policies in 2010 include that judges, both AA and AAA, judge a minimum of one show every three years as well as follow a four-show limit per year rule, unless an exception is granted. Another point of emphasis will be contracts. All judges will be required to have a contract for their services with show management. Also, each judge will be asked to fill out a self-evaluation at the completion of each assignment.

Also, standard charts have been developed to judge by and will have areas of focus for flat shod, performance, fine harness, and show pleasure/park performance divisions. There will also be a non-compliant standard chart to aid judges in excusing entries. Judges will be given disqualification cards to hand to any entry they ask to be excused. This card will list the reason for the disqualification and the excused entry will be asked to report back to the DQP station. Each show will be videotaped and will be reviewed by SHOW and their committees.

A new penalty matrix was formed to hold judges accountable for their actions in center ring. The penalty matrix will be made public soon.

Throughout the two-day seminar the focus of the speakers and sessions were to educate the attendees in all of these areas. With a new rulebook due out in March, the applicants were not given a test however a test will be mailed out with the new rulebook which the applicants must complete and return to SHOW.

Before getting into the specific areas of judging, Beard welcomed esteemed American Quarter Horse Association judge, Dr. Doyle Meadows to the stage. Meadows talked on judging ethics and gave a presentation that focused on cleaning up the image of the Tennessee Walking Horse judge. The full presentation by Meadows is available and can be viewed by clicking here.