I just came across the link to an interesting page that does statistics on dressage shows. Of interest, shows from last year were used to compile information about how judges scored tests. Of course there are many variables that go into what happens in a particular test, but it’s interesting to look at the over all trend.
http://www.dressagedetective.com/region3/us-dressage-training-level-report-2013-region-3/
I’m sharing this partly because I think it’s interesting, so my readers might too! But partly also to save the link for myself. I’m thinking I’d rather ride for a judge that was found to give a higher average score than one of the ones that gave a lower average score, even though my ride may differ from the rest of those that he/she judged last year. I’m also thinking it will be interesting to compare my scores to the average score given by the judge. Then if I think “Gosh, I did really well that time!” but then see that my score is still below the average score the judge gives I’ll know maybe not so much… but on the other hand, if I’m a little disappointed in the result of my performance, but then see that I still did “above average” for that judge, I’ll feel a bit better about it!
Of course, this is a far from perfect system, and there are way too many variables to really make scientific claims as to who is a higher or lower scoring judge (if there even is such a thing, maybe one judge looks “low scoring” because the show she judged was during a thunderstorm and all the horses were behaving badly).
Oh well, for those of us who like to think just a little too much about it, it’s interesting. Draw your own conclusions!
TB at X 