I agree with this. Half a lap is a ways for something like stepping on something or grabbing itself–a few steps I’d give you, but not half a lap of the ring. Especially with only four horses, where I’d assume you’re only trotting a lap or two anyway.
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A lot depends on the size of the ring and how long the judge had to stare before deciding it was off- no, better- no, it’s fine. As well as whether the judge saw the bad step happen to identify a precipitating factor, and how much the fractious 4th place horse was distracting the judge at the time.
Gotta love the hunters. Sometimes there’s just no empirically right answer.
I judged a schooling show where my winner of the 2’ equitation class got lost on the way to the first fence and did some kind of serpentine-y thing while trying to figure out how to get there. Between that and a wing standard in front of me that obscured my line of sight on her track, I had to seriously consider whether or not she had presented to the fence before coming back around, and if I should judge it as a technical refusal. Once she figured out how to get to jump 1, she then proceeded to be the only entry who had a level-appropriate understanding of track and pace, not to mention steering, changing leads, and finding 8 reasonable distances on a consistent stride. I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt on her entry path because I couldn’t decide she HAD presented, which meant I couldn’t say it was definitely a technical refusal; and because at the end of the day, it seemed a pretty important consideration that she could steer and her competitors could not.
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I think we have all experienced shows where we made a mistake and ended up pinning well and then we have a beautiful round and get nothing. At least that has been the case for me and many friends, just part of horse showing.
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I judged a schooling show where the first 3 riders all rode a different course. And none of them was the course that was posted. They weren’t bad trips but they weren’t the trips I was supposed to see so I couldn’t use them
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That’s pretty funny, at least it was just a schooling show.
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Haha…at the show I judged on Saturday (where this whole convo generated from), there was a twice around the outside xrail course. One rider went over only 1x and left the ring. Another rider went over 3x and was headed for a 4th time before her coach called her out of the arena. It happens!
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The first one jumped the first 7 fences and then left before jumping the final single which was fence 8. The second rider jumped two lines just fine and then took the long way around to present to a single going the wrong direction (how? why?). The third one I thought “ok, we have someone on course finally” and after jump 8 she continued on and added another fence that was for the equitation class but not for the hunter class she was in.
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Were these young children, new to showing? That would maybe explain nerves that caused them to forget their course. It sounds like a frustrating class to judge though.
4H fair
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Counting is hard. Every single one of us who has ever been faced with a long bending line knows this. #ammycard
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I am of an age where Hunters is totally out for me. I need the jumps numbered if I’m to have half a prayer of remembering the course anymore! 
Oh Man… I did a 4H show with a few jumpers when I was a junior because it was the only horse show that weekend and were keeping the horses going. I asked someone what I needed to know since they didn’t seem to really identify if it was hunters, jumpers, eq… just height. The trainer’s answer “The only thing you need to know: Survival gets ribbons”. I didn’t quite understand what she meant until I watched one kid get pitched through a jump, hop back on, and proceed to finish the course. The next one got run away with after the first line and left without completing… and another one that went before me had her mare rear up and backpedal out of the in-gate. So I kind of understood and just stayed out, went around, maybe equitated, maybe went to the base, but also kept a rhythm. Won a class and still am not sure what we were entered into… just that it was around 3’… had some colored rails and some natural jumps, and had a rollback. So who knows.
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