35th Annual Horse Show (2005)
Judges are people. They trained riders who want to help 4H Club members learn. They are asked to be judges because they have special training and background in certain subject matters. Not all judges have the same training and background in the same subject, and that’s why judges sometimes differ in their opinions as to how something should be done. We need to understand this to gracefully accept the award we’re given.
The process of judging will never be perfect. Judges can evaluate only what they see. They can’t know how hard one member has worked or what obstacles another may have had to overcome, so that they must judge what they see according to a standard. They can guess a little about what to expect from members of a certain age or years of experience in demonstrating, but even here there is a difference of opinion.
We should accept judging for the best it can do for us and reconcile ourselves to some of the faults that are impossible to overcome. Learn what we can do from the judging, but don’t take it too seriously – don’t make it a matter of life and death. Consider judging an adventure to stimulate us to a greater achievement
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