This situation (sort of) happened to me 15+ years ago. Though it wasn’t a horse show!
I took my Border Collie to a Cattle Dog Trials at a friend’s cattle ranch. I entered the ‘beginner novice 2’ to 2’3" equivalent, judged under standardized rules. (You ride a horse, but you can’t go faster than a walk, your dog has to make an outrun and lift, and each obstacle has to be done in a certain way). We were, uh, not the high score there.
But we also entered the ‘Working Ranch Dogs Only’ class, where you can use your horse at any speed or position, you use your dog to help you bring cattle into the corral and then sort some into one corral, the rest of the cattle back to the pasture. The rules were, use your dog as you would at home. The judges were the two ranch owners, who were told to pick the competitor who handled the cattle like they wanted to see it done, calm and effective.
So we had a great run, the horse trotted because the dog needed some assistance with the gather, the heifers went at a quiet trot first, then a nice walk into the corrals, and there was no dusty kerfuffle when the heifers were ‘sorted’.
And we were second. Oh well.
The custom belt buckle and $100 went to another fellow.
But walking back to the cars, I was with the ranch owners/Ranch Class judges, where John said to Sally, “I can’t believe you gave Henry and Harry a better score than Fillabeana and Fido, I gave them the high score-Henry and Harry were faster but I thought they really fuzzed up the heifers”. To which Sally said, but I DID give Fillabeana and Fido the high score, I thought the same thing about the heifers getting upset". They were a bit distraught, but the $100 and the belt buckle had driven away by then. I was disappointed, to be sure, but I was happy because I knew I did win it. The other guy could really use the $100, I was in a much better financial position at the time. I could have another belt buckle made, but I already had a buckle I was very proud of, that I wore (and still wear). And it was better in my social situation at the time, to just let it go. So I did, and I assured John and Sally that hey, I knew I won, they knew I won, no big fuss necessary. (Sally was the local horse 4-H coach and Junior/high school rodeo coach for a long time, so she had been involved in such things, and was ready to go get stuff back for me.)
Another time, I was at an unrecognized horse trials, and they were posting final jumping/x-c scores at the same time they were handing out ribbons. There were no official jump judges, just a timer, so we were on the honor system.
I was second after dressage, but the ‘winner’ had told everyone how she didn’t walk the cross-country course, and had got lost. It took her time to find her next fence, and jumped them all, but she was way over time.
Posting the results was really informal, and they forgot to add her time penalties, so they announced (in a small group of about 15 people) her as winner of the Novice division…and I spoke up and said, she had time penalties, didn’t she? Oh yes, you’re right…calculate the penalties in, and she was fourth. Again, not much fuss but that time I did say something, since the ‘winner’ was public about getting lost on course before the ribbons were given out!
I think an unofficial ‘posting’ of results, with a half hour to speak up with any issues, is a great idea. This way, it is the exhibitors’ responsibility to speak up IN THAT TIME if something doesn’t come out right. Or somebody thinks the winning ‘pony’ is really 14.2 1/2 hh. That give s the official time to calculate points, find official pony cards or measure the pony, etc. Afterwards, those results are the official results.
I would think if there was some sort of eligibility issue, like a horse that was not pre-green eligible, or someone got ‘caught’ breaking an amateur rule, the ‘official’ results could change at a later date. Those aren’t really issues that could be solved in a half-hour. You’d have to make the ‘cheating winner’ responsible for returning prize money, and replacing prizes. Not ideal, since the ‘cheating winner’ already has the recognition, victory gallop, photo op, etc but that’s about all you could do.
:winkgrin: This was a once in a lifetime thing for the owner and would never, ever be close to happening again and my trainer wasn’t going to be the kill joy. Association rep was more then welcome to make the call and correct it. I don’t really know the outcome, but I don’t think they got the cooler back. 
