Day 5 - Mary Seefried

Mary Seefried is a member of the Judges Supervisory Panel (JSP) at Aachen. She explained that is was first used in gymnastics and figure skating, two other sports with semi-subjective judging, before being implemented in Dressage. The job is the JSP is to keep the sport fair for riders and to act as a safety net for judges. Judges are only human and sometimes make a mistake or miss something. The JSP has a video of the ride that they can use for. Idea replay and can change scores. At Aachen they had a panel of 3 people, 2 judges and 1 trainer. One person watches the test, one watches video review, and one watches the scores come in from the seven judges. If a score comes I that is far off from the other scores the JSP can change it, either up or down. They are limited by the scores given by the other judges, they must stay within the range given by the other six judges. 

Mary made it clear that the JSP is not there to take over the job of the judges but to act as a safety net. They are only able to change scores based on technical mistakes, not quality of horse and movement. For example, if a horse misses a count on changes, has a late change (a judge looking straight on would not be able see that), or a horse has to few piaffe steps. The score they are changing must also be a 2pt difference from the next closest score.  This whole process happens very quickly, it must be completed before the next horse enters the arena. The JSP has a scribe that will mark down the change that is made to the score and writes the reason why. This sheet is then attached to the test score sheet. 

After the Grand Prix was finished the JSP and the judges had a meeting to review rides. The JSP is very careful not to single out anyone in the review but rather to make it an educational meeting and to generate a discussion. The JSP picks out certain rides and make note of movements that they changed the scores on. The judges who scores were changed did receive a copy of the changed scores and the reasons why. This is not meant to embrace anyone but to help educate and give feedback. Currently the JSP is only required at the large championships but shows can opt to have a JSP at their own expense.