Scoring and ribbon distribution

[Equestrianette]

I’d like to hear from others on how scoring and ribbon distribution goes at your local schooling and recognized events.

I’ve personally experienced several occasions at one venue that takes on a good day one hour to distribute ribbons. When it gets to 2, 3, 4 hours of waiting because people want to protest a score it gets a bit ridiculous. Like… horses loaded on the trailer ready to go and just keep getting told over and over “they’re almost done!” When they really aren’t. And now we’ve been waiting several hours with horses on the trailer. Kid goes home in tears because enough is enough. I understand that these shows are run by volunteers but if it’s run this badly on a regular maybe it would be worth paying someone to do scoring. It’s not fun or enjoyable. It ends up not being worth it at all and a huge frustration. Is it like this across the board or is it just mismanagement at certain venues?

[Highflyer1]

Our dressage schooling shows are almost always pinned using the Danish system, which is awesome as it means rides can be scheduled in any order and scored and pinned immediately. The exceptions are mostly tiny shows where it’s less of an issue-- or big ones like GMO championships where you just suck it up.

Otherwise it can certainly be a couple of hours, especially if you’re at the beginning of a big class. At horse trials (both schooling and recognized) it’s not uncommon to have the option to leave $5 and have your ribbon and test mailed (or if you live close by to come back and pick up either later in the day or in the next few days depending on the venue.) I’m not sure what the norm is for recognized dressage shows locally.

[Willesdon]

What is “the Danish system”? I’ve not heard of it before.

[endlessclimb]

I think it’s mismanagement at certain venues.

Some of my local shows are slam-bam on the ribbons, either doing it right after the class is finished with everyone in the ring, or having the riders pick up their ribbons from the office.

One, however, is notoriously slow. They also suck at scoring, leading to lots of disputes (I was one of them, once - it was going to cost me a championship if I didn’t else I wouldn’t have really cared).

[Foxglove]

I am taking my money elsewhere. Despite the relatively few Mounted Archery venues, the closest had been so slow to score and pin I will not attend again this summer. FIVE HOURS between the last ride and the first ribbon at "The Awards Ceremony " that took another hour was too long–and then when my coach looked at my scoresheet the next week, he found math errors that made my score lower than it should have been. I had been awarded first place so placing didn’t change. When one makes the effort to attend and pays a considerable amount, the organizer should do a better job! At other bigger venues, scores and placing are updated after each run.

[Highflyer1]

For some reason I thought this thread was on thr dressage forum. I have seen this done for combined tests but never for a full event.

The Danish system means that you are given a ribbon based on your score. It’s generally something like this: 67±- first place/blue
62.1-67-second place/red
57.1-62-third place/yellow
57-52.1-fourth place/white
52 or below-fifth place/pink

I’ve also seen the ribbons replaced with small prizes for each tier, sometimes in different colors to match the ribbons, sometimes just a pick a prize.

It makes a schooling show feel less competitive and more like a lesson where you also get a ribbon. Plus you can schedule the times to meet people’s needs. One farm has their shows on Fridays and I usually ask to ride first or very early, then go to work in the afternoon.

[Jealoushe]

Scoring takes a long time. Gathering XC score sheets, verifying everything. At an event you should expect a few hrs after you finish. More than 2 I would be getting annoyed but it’s not the end of the world.

Once scores are posted, they usually give 1/2 hr to protest the score. Then another 30 mins if there is a discrepancy after the scores are re posted.

Just to give an example. At an event I was marked for having a stop when I didn’t. I circled wide. I protested at the end of our division, but the TD was busy, so I had to wait an hr for her. Then we had to review my helmet cam video because they didnt believe me. So we had to find a laptop to load my gopro. Took another hour. So while people may have been annoyed at the wait, there was a reason for it.

When you go eventing, expect to be there all day. Nothing is more annoying then people breathing down the scorers necks and complaining scores aren’t up in time.

[Janet]

There are many reasons for delays in posting scores/ handing out ribbons, but it is rarely the scorers’ fault.

Some of the things I have seen

• dressage test didn’t get to the scorers until hours later (was eventually found on the judges clipboard, even though judge and scribe both insisted they had given it to the runner)
• one of the cross country jump score sheets is missing for an extended time
• the rider numbers on one or more of the cross country ump score sheets are clearly wrong, and extensive time and effort is required to figure out WHICH horse had the refusal at that jump
• somebody has an inquiry, and the TD has to talk to the rider, the jump judge, anyone else who might have seen it, possibly look at video, and that takes time.

Several posts above have mentioned “protests” at the end of a division. In most cases these are “inquiries”, not “protests”. If you make an inquiry, and do not accept the result, you can “appeal” to the PoGJ. If you still don’t accept the result you can file an official protest, which involves putting up money ($100 for USEA, $200 to USEF) and assembling a committee to review the protest. It doesn’t happen very often.

If you didn’t put up money, it wasn’t a protest.

[Libby2563]

Related complaint: how about the shows that take forever to send prizes? Earlier this year I won $40 off a subsequent entry at that venue, but they conveniently didn’t email it to me until after I had entered my next event there. Then of course it couldn’t be applied retroactively, and they only held one other event I could possibly have used it for (which I didn’t attend) before it expired. Left a bad taste in my mouth…

[Jealoushe]

Yeah that’s not cool.

I’ve had people commit to sponsoring shows, then never send the prizes. After we advertised them all year etc. It was always “in the mail”. Couldn’t go pick it up or anything. Not cool.

[Libby2563]

@Jealoushe

I’ve had people commit to sponsoring shows, then never send the prizes. After we advertised them all year etc. It was always “in the mail”. Couldn’t go pick it up or anything. Not cool.

Oh, that’s really messed up!

[Jealoushe]

I thought so too! Not a good look for them lol

[trakehners]

Scoring takes a long time. Gathering XC score sheets, verifying everything. At an event you should expect a few hrs after you finish. More than 2 I would be getting annoyed but it’s not the end of the world.

Once scores are posted, they usually give 1/2 hr to protest the score. Then another 30 mins if there is a discrepancy after the scores are re posted.

Seconding this - the only times I’ve had it take less time were when there were only a few of us in the division (very small local mini trial) and we all reviewed the scores as soon as they were posted and quite literally signed off on the score sheet that we weren’t disputing the placings so that the secretary could hand out ribbons and we could all go home. It worked with four of us in the division but I can’t imagine that it would be anywhere that easy with even twice as many people, let alone multiple times that size. When I was a kid at that same venue I waited probably four hours for my final placing, then another half hour for any disputes to be raised (thankfully there never were any), but it’s been running more smoothly/quickly in recent years because the current secretary is extremely on top of things.

Most of the local H/J schooling shows that I’ve been to pin every class by the end of the division so there usually isn’t too much standing around going on. The most waiting I’ve done this year was because they ran out of ribbons for my placing and had to go up to the house to get more, and I wouldn’t have hung around for it if we weren’t still packing the trailer at the time.

[Baybear]

It all depends on the show, type of competition etc. Eventing, because of the rules allowing for inquiry after the results are posted, the distributing of ribbons may take longer, which most exhibitors know or should know. H/J should be fairly quickly but giving out division championships may take a tad longer at smaller shows. Big shows the championships are usually given out after the class ribbons are awarded. Some shows may want to do more of a awards presentation so may wait for a time when the rings are clear. while it’s annoying to have to wait around, please be patient for show management - as if you get mad and don’t support the show(s) then wonder why the show is no longer in existence. In my area we’ve lost nearly all our local schooling shows except for 1 or 2 series. We used to have 3 or 4 good schooling show series but they no longer drew entries and now everyone is whining there are no schooling shows.