Ugh, I had to leave to bring dinner to my folks so watched the 2nd round and missed the testing. I figured Augusta was so far back that I wouldn’t be missing much. Boy, was I wrong! I wish I could see it now. Congrats to all the riders - they all have way more stamina than I do!
From the article COTH just posted, talking about the final round: “I didn’t want any trick riding. I didn’t want them to try and land the counter lead…” -Brown
This came up at medal finals too, with Skylar landing the counter lead but seemingly not being rewarded for it. It seems like a fundamental judging issue if competitors and coaches think that executing a higher level of difficulty well will set them apart, and judges disagree.
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If we’re talking about Ellie, that also didn’t feel like “trick riding” to me as it wasn’t specified that it had to be on one lead or the other. That was a tight and fast line - I felt like holding the lead was the better option than trying to change and miss it - like Luke did.
But clearly that was not the “correct” answer. Which again…to me just leads to a circle of baffling logic because it appears based on this that the correct answer WAS trying the change and missing? How is that correct?
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Anyone know if the livestream will be available to watch again later?
I’m curious about this too- I was duped into a Clip My Horse premium membership (long story), and they have some rides archived, but only about the top 20 or so. Did they really not archive the whole class? With the exorbitant membership fee, I’ll be pretty fired up if they don’t have the whole class 
ETA: I think it’s an issue with my membership on CMH’s part.
I forget who it was - Andre maybe? - but a few years ago a big name Eq trainer said that judges typically look for a lead to be held in a bending line, but when the line is broken - close to 90 degrees turn - the correct answer is to swap the lead. I think this is one of those cases where since the turn was very right angle style and very tight, a swap to the left lead was more correct and it probably cost her.
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I think so too. I didn’t really consider this last night, but I was always taught that you should never “add” something to an equitation test—no counter-canter was called for here so choosing to hold that lead was a risk that maybe backfired.
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I think part of the problem was some of the blood was too new.
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I just rewatched. It was a 4 stride line, bend was not that tight, and a swap would have completely interrupted the flow and probably also ruined the distance. Holding the lead was 150% the correct option here.
If this is what the judges used to drop her out of the top 5, when she was hands-down the best of the bunch, they should be incredibly ashamed and never be hired to judge again. Unless they were dinging her for not landing the correct lead, but again she was so freaking much better than everyone else…
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I probably missed it somewhere in this very long thread- who were the judges?
Robin Rost Brown and Michael Tokaruk
So is there not like, a general guide or something somewhere that makes it clear for the riders what the judges are looking for? Or are they pretty much guessing in cases like that and it just depends on the judge?
Maybe I am looking at the wrong thing, but it appears Tokaruk has judged a grand total of 12 shows. If that is the case, how is he hired to judge the most prestigious class in the country?
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I was always taught that you hold the lead you land on in a bending line and that a swap wasn’t correct, so…
yeah idk man
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Yeah this seems like a really odd choice for a judge.
To me there are things that are universally held correct and the riders are supposed to know these things, and this is part of the test - ie, turns done on the inside lead, trot on the outside diagonal, show pace to a single fence with a long approach, make the inside turn when possible, canter-walk transition with no trot steps, etc.
The problem with some of the recent finals is there is so much about riding that is not always done one way or the other and the judges are not specifying a preference, but they have one and they’re penalizing riders who guess wrong even if their “wrong answer” is executed much better than the other riders’ “right answers.” If you want a change of lead to the counter canter, specify it. If you want a certain lead on a short related distance, specify it. It was both very slick of Ellie to hold the outside lead and perfectly executed; I cannot imagine the judges think it would have been a smoother round if she swapped there (same with Skylar a few weeks ago). It’s frustrating as a spectator to have to guess after the fact why the placings were the way they were; I cannot even imagine as a rider, parent or trainer. I think the riders in the top 25 were correctly there but they weren’t ranked correctly and the judging/place changes after that were absolutely bananas.
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This is well said, and our conversation here exemplifies how subjective it is. It doesn’t seem fair that riders should be wondering what the correct answer is while riding into a test—they should be clear about the correct answer and should strive to perform it the best.
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Does anyone know where to find the video of Augusta’s first round yesterday?
There is a link towards the bottom of this article to watch the press conference if anyone missed it.
Edited to add: It looks like the link only works for ClipMyHorse subscribers.
