Judges and Judging

1. Judging Application must be accompanied by 3 letters of recommendation regarding your experience and knowledge of horses and horse shows.

2. Applicants will be required to attend a judge’s clinic involving both written tests and live judging tests. Upon successful completion of the clinic the judge will apprentice 3 shows under 3 different licensed TWHSA judges. The judge will then be given a Class A license which will allow the judge to preside over Class A shows. After completing a minimum of 4 Class A shows the judge may apply for his license to be reassigned to a Class AA license enabling him to judge any TWHSA show. (See rules for description of Class A and Class AA shows.)

3. All judges are required to attend a judging clinic once every 3 years. In addition, every judge will take an open rule book test annually.

4. Within the first 5 years of a judge’s licensure they are required to attend a 14 hour DQP training session. We hope this will better help these two very important show officials to understand each others responsibilities and foster mutual assistance for both.

1. A panel of three judges will be selected from the pool of AA licensed judges to be members of the Oversight Committee. These judges will handle the judge evaluations from show managers and exhibitors and make remedial recommendations, if necessary, based on these evaluations. Decisions and recommendations will be a consensus of all 3 judges. One judge will be replaced from this panel each year.

2. A panel of three judges will be selected from the pool of AA licensed judges to plan and conduct the annual judge’s clinic and develop the open rule book written test. This panel will also establish the list of new applicants and determine the issuance of Class A licenses. Decisions and recommendations will be a consensus of all 3 judges. One judge will be replaced from this panel each year.

3. Both of these panels will be answerable to the association officers only in the achievement of their duties. Their decisions can not be overruled by these officers. Any protests concerning the actions of these panels will be determined by a written ballot among the Class AA judges.

1. No judge selected to officiate at a show may be contacted concerning that show by any person attempting to influence his opinion in determining how a horse will be placed in the class. All contacts made in violation hereof mustbe reported immediately to the TWHSA by the judge.

2. A judge may not, during the period of a show at which he is judging, be the house guest of a person who is exhibiting in the show, or whose family is exhibiting at the show.

3. Failure of a judge to attend a show to which he is committed, is cause for disciplinary action except in cases of extreme emergency.

4. When officiating at a show, a judge must not arrive on show grounds more than 30 minutes prior to show time.

5. No one, nor their immediate family or employee, nor horses owned by this person shall show before a TWHSA licensed judge that had any business dealings with that judge in the past 90 days (exception: stud fees)

6. Judges shall not inspect or discuss any horse entered in the show prior to the start of the show, unless so requested by Show Management. Show Management must be present.

7. Judges shall adjudicate each class in conformity with the rules and specifications of that class as they appear in the TWHSA Rule Book.

8. The decision of a judge must constitute his individual preference and not the opinion of show management or officials of TWHSA. Once a class has been judged, it must not be re-judged, and once the judge has marked his records and places for awards made, there must be no changing of the judge’s record, the only exception being an entry that fails post show inspection.

9. Communicating with a judge(s) at a show by an exhibitor in that show is a violation of rules. An exhibitor may request, through the show manager, the judge’s opinion or comments concerning that exhibitor’s horse. The request must be made at the conclusion of the show. It is urged that the judge will give his opinion courteously and sincerely in the presence of the show manager and in a private setting

10. Judges licensed by TWHSA must conduct themselves in a manner reflecting credit upon TWHSA, the horse show, and the Tennessee Walking Horse.

11. An entry must be excused for bad image. (See Chapter 1C). An entry may, at the discretion of the Judge, be excused from the ring for any infraction of the TWHSA Rules or for deviating from the true gaits of the Tennessee Walking Horse. Excused entries must report to the DQP upon leaving the ring. The entry may be eligible to show in a succeeding class if the problem can be corrected.

12. Judges must be treated with courtesy and respect. No person, exhibitor, owner or otherwise, shall direct abuse or threatening conduct toward a judge during an event or show, or on show grounds. The judge must report the violation.

a. All three judges carry equal weight in the final class decision, and winners are placed by the best two out of three votes. Each horse is judged as if it were working individually and then compared with the performance of all other horses in the class who are judged on the same basis.
b. All judges place the same number of entries in each class, depending on class size. Ties are resolved by averaging the opinions of the three judges.

c. Judges must work independently, with no discussion of any kind until the judges’ cards are turned in. They should vary their judging positions and rotate around the ring. They should discuss and plan how to cover the ring and work classes before the show to avoid “cluster” judging. A suggestion would be to section the ring into three areas which will give each judge a separate but equal view of the rail with rotation of positions for each class.

d. Judges’ cards should be marked ahead of time with the rotation and indicate who will be call judge for each class. The call judge is responsible for calling the gaits and for the lineup.

e. Judges’ cards should indicate how many entries should be placed. Three additional ties are recommended for each class. (Tie 11 horses in a class in which 8 horses receive awards.) The ringmaster should return an incompletely tied card to the judge for correction before giving it to the scorer(s).

f. Any Judge may request a workout in any class by communicating through the ringmaster. The judge requesting the workout states the numbers of those horses he wants called to the workout and for how many places they are to be worked. The ringmaster relates this to the other judges one at a time. A workout requires agreement by two of the three, or the positions must be filled without a workout.

g. If a workout is agreed upon, the ringmaster must ask the other Judges if they wish to add other horses to those being sent to the rail. The ringmaster must be sure that all judges know what horses are working to fill the places.

h. To be included in a preliminary class workout, an entry must appear on two judges’ cards. An entry that does not receive two votes returns to the rail and may then be parked in by one judge. In a championship class, a horse that appears on only one judge’s card must be included in the workout.

i. The ringmaster must inform the announcer of the workout request. Whenever horses are being called for a workout, the announcer must call for them in numerical order.

j. When three numbers are circled on the same line and their vote counts are identical, it is an extremely rare three-way identical tie. When a three-way identical tie occurs for first place, a workout is optional. If the judge calls for a workout, the three horses involved shall be sent back to the rail. If a workout is not called for the class, the class will be tied by the fall of the cards.

k. If there has already been a workout, the Judges should be notified and given the option of going with fall of the cards or sending the horses back to the rail for additional work.

l. If the tie is still identical after the workout, the class is tied by the fall of the cards.

m. When the identical three-way tie is for second place or lower, the class is determined by fall of the cards:
The number that is positioned first (not the circled line) on the call judge’s card will be first (101). The second (102) and third (103) places are then determined by the judges’ choices as their cards are placed in sequence.
In the example shown , if B was the call cudge, then 102 would be first, C’s choice of 103 would be second and A’s choice of 101 would be third. If C were the call judge, then 103 would be first 101 would be second and 102 third.

A	B	C
101	102	103
102	103	101
103	101	102

a. Five judges working independently of each other will place each class. Judge number one will be the call judge.

b. Points will be assigned to placings on a one to ten basis with first place receiving ten points, second place receiving nine points, third placing receiving eight points, and so forth on down to one point for tenth place. The highest placing and the lowest placing are eliminated for each entry. The remaining three placings are totaled and the entry receiving the most points wins the class. In case of a tie, then all five placings are added. If still tied, then the first or call judge’s card will break the tie.