Being the person who calls out a lame horse at a show

[no.stirrups]

I judge 4-H and other low level fun shows, and I’ve had to excuse a number of horses for lameness. Mostly people are nice about it.

I’ve heard the line that judge’s aren’t vets and so can’t tell if a horse is lame, and I think it is such BS! Recognizing lameness is just horsemanship. Diagnosing and recommending treatment would be the vets job, but recognizing that the horse is lame is just observing a symptom. It’s like saying you can’t see a rash unless you are a dermatologist!

[Alex_and_Bodie_s_Mom]

I did once, as a show manager. The judge asked me to rule on an extremely lame older horse, and we excused him for the rest of the day.

Problem was, it was a friend’s horse. She wasn’t very happy, as she was going for year end awards and needed the points. I was pretty disappointed in her.

[Pancakes]

I called out a horse that had open wounds on its side from spurs. I was appalled that they were riding the horse in the class, and I mentioned something to the person at the ingate. The horse did not show the next day. I’m sure it wasn’t intentional and they were just as appalled once they brought the horse back to the barn.

It never hurts to speak up in favor of the animal’s well-being.

[TWH_Girl]

[QUOTE=OverandOnward;8775156]
At a schooling show, once, and it wasn’t so much lameness as radical over-use of a young horse. There were actually 3 of us, 2 of us volunteers and one the show coordinator, who in the last few classes were watching this poor young horse who had been jumped and jumped in every possible class since the morning. All three of us started talking to each other about it at the same time - this was way too much.

The trainer was the rider’s mom and was insisting the horse had to keep going because “he has to get it right”. The horse was just tiring and getting more wrong. Show coordinator was debating telling them they just couldn’t show him any more, but was hoping to get a good decision from them and not have to go that step.

Finally all 3 of us talked to the mom in the warm-up ring (where the rider was jumping and jumping the horse, on mom-trainer instructions - as she had in every warm-up before all the classes he was entered). The mom was obdurate. Horse went into the class and jumped the best he had all day. Teenage rider was all smiles and ready to take him to the trailer. But mom-trainer rose up and insisted “he has to do it again”. Well, all 3 of us stood up and said “three experienced horse people are trying to tell you this horse has had enough and you are likely to injure him seriously by continuing - and he is unlikely to be this good again, as tired as he is, you are going to lose this good experience”.

Mom-trainer (who really did not have that much experience) continued to insist the horse had to continue. Fifteen-year-old rider spoke up like a hero: “HE IS FINISHED AND GOING BACK TO THE TRAILER”. And she got off and started walking the horse away.

Fifteen-year-old rider took good care of her horse, then came back to tell us without her mom-trainer around, with great poise and determination, “My mom does not know what she is doing. I am taking over this horse and I am not going to let her do that again.” And from her tone and bearing, that is exactly what was going to happen. Between the girl and the mom, the girl was clearly the older and wiser soul, and she knew it.

There was one other time, another schooling show when I was one of about a half-dozen people who said in a positive, casual and friendly tone to a rider, “hey, have you thought about having his hocks done?” Rider was very quiet in response. Learned later that the horse, a 4-yo, was retired after that show. His hocks HAD been done - and that was not the problem. Whatever it was, he was not asked to be sore any more. I understand he is still living happily at pasture as a companion horse at a breeding barn.

So sometimes it does help to speak up. Far more effective if it isn’t just one voice. :)[/QUOTE]

I did see a judge once tell a rider that she needed to be done with her horse. She had the horse is about 10 classes (Walking Horse so no jumping) but it was in the 90s and the judge just said, “Your horse is tired and has had enough. You will not be allowed back into the ring”. Kudos to that judge. I had forgotten about it until your post here.

[beowulf]

good for you for sticking up for the horse’s welfare, especially if it was a family or young person that did not know.

in that same vein, you do really have to be careful. i have a wonderful, incredibly conscientious UL rider friend who constantly takes in projects from polo or race acquaintances and gives them a little bit of an education to make them more marketable for their second careers… recently she received an incredibly catty gelding from one such friend to get his feet wet in the eventing scene… he has shivers and as a yearling was ddx’d with EPM… thousands upon thousands of dollars later he is a very sound horse… but he needs a long, generous warm up and will be very stiff if he is stalled (like what happens at shows). during warm up while a friend was filming her at a show the video captured some nasty railbirds absolutely lambasting her for her ‘unsound’ horse. you do have to be careful with the ‘servicably’ sound horses because sometimes there is a backstory and it is not because the horse is lame.

conversely, we have one in our front yard that has an old (fully healed, as proven on US) flexor tendon injury. he will always have that ‘flick’ that horses with flexor tendon injuries have – the scarring from the rupture has permanently remodeled the elasticity of the limb. is he lame? no – but he does have an irregularity that someone with a sharp eye will be able to see.

i suspect that is why judges don’t always ring out a horse that might have an intermittent issue.

[Daventry]

[QUOTE=goodhors;8774827]
The way I hear it with lame horses at QH shows, is judge can’t rule horse lame unless they are also a Vet. Judge is “not qualified” to determine lameness. Been awhile since I heard this, but the rich folks sued over it, with the Judge side losing. Can’t afford those kind of suits, AQHA loses to high-powered attorney every time.[/QUOTE]

I’m not going to comment on the AQHA circuit, or the validity of the information provided above, as I honestly know nothing about it. That being said, as a USEF and Equine Canada judge, I can tell you that this is NOT correct information for the USEF and EC circuits.

Under USEF rule GR602.6.a for Non-protestable decisions:
“[I]The soundness of a horse, when determined by an official veterinarian of the competition or by a judge, is not protestable.”

[/I]GR1033.7.a "Only the judge may call a veterinarian during a class but is encouraged to do so if his opinion necessitates the disqualification of an entry. The judge shall give the numbers of the horses in question and the veterinarian shall render his finding. If the veterinarian is not immediately available or not called upon, the judge’s decision as to the serviceable soundness of a horse shall be accepted for the purpose of disqualifying a horse from showing in that class and shall be final. (Exception: The decision of a judge as to the serviceable soundness of a horse in Hunter classes is final, however the competition veterinarian may be consulted.)

Under EC rule A1202.2 for Protests and Disputes:
"The soundness, of a horse, when determined by an official veterinarian of the competition, or by a judge, is no subject to protest.

Under EC A1312.9 General responsibilities of judges: "The judge shall examine and check for unsoundness all horses brought into any class. This is essential regardless of whether or not the competition indicates it is necessary. In the absence of a veterinarian, the judge’s decision regarding soundness of a horse is final."

[Chuckles]

[QUOTE=goodhors;8774827]
The way I hear it with lame horses at QH shows, is judge can’t rule horse lame unless they are also a Vet. Judge is “not qualified” to determine lameness. Been awhile since I heard this, but the rich folks sued over it, with the Judge side losing. Can’t afford those kind of suits, AQHA loses to high-powered attorney every time.[/QUOTE]

Hi goodhors,
I wanted to clear this up. This is the actual wording from the AQHA rule book:
SHW325. LAMENESS The judge shall examine and check for lameness of all horses brought into any class. The judge has the authority to excuse any horse from the class, due to lameness, at any time while being judged. This is essential regardless of wheth- er or not the competition indicates it is necessary.
SHW325.1 Obvious lameness shall be cause for disqualifica- tion. Obvious lameness is:
SHW325.1.1 Consistently observable at a trot under all circumstances;
SHW325.1.2 Marked nodding, hitching or shortened stride;
SHW325.1.3 Minimal weight-bearing in motion and/or at rest and inability to move.

In a multi judged class (and that is every class now), lameness is one of the areas that they can consult under.If a horse takes a funny step and one judge isn’t sure what they saw, they can ask the opinion of the other judges. This prevents it from becoming a witch hunt. I know horses excused at the WS for lameness, while it doesn’t happen often, but it does happen.