Volunteers are the backbone of any horse show, but there is one position that is essential to every dressage competition: the scribe. A scribe is a judge’s assistant, responsible for recording the marks and comments and noting any errors so that the judge can watch the entire test unimpeded.
“It only takes a blink of an eye to miss something, even with a scribe,” says Maureen van Tuyl, of San Jose, CA, a USEF “R” dressage technical delegate and a veteran scribe who has sat ringside at the 1996 Olympics and other international competitions. “I scribed at the European Dressage Championships several years ago in England. [Top German pair] Ulla Salzgeber and Rusty were doing an extended canter across the diagonal that looked like it would earn an 8 or 9. Right at the end, Rusty flipped his lead a few times. All the judges gave it a 4, apart from one who gave it a 9! It happened so fast, and somehow she just didn’t see it.”
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THE JUDGE'S BOX
CLINIC
