After I returned from the Judges Clinic in New Jersey, I taught for a day and a half, then flew up to Rochester, New York to judge for two days. Naomi Blumenthal is a show manager who runs a bunch of shows in that area. I met her when I was riding on the Syracuse University Equestrian Team and she was the Director of Riding for Cazenovia College (against whom we competed at IHSA shows). I ran into Naomi at the USHJA Annual Meeting last December and she offered me the job.
The show I judged was “Spring into April”, hosted by Lehmann Farms just outside of Rochester. What a delightful show! The first day was unrated, with Open, Junior, Amateur and Pony classes from walk/trot to 2’6″ jumping classes. It was a packed day. The staff was awesome – there was never an empty ring and it went to 8:30pm!
The next day was the B rated day, which started with Pre-Green then High Performance Hunters and ended with Children’s Pony and Regular Pony Hunters. It was so nice to be able to see horses and riders from outside our area. There were some great jumping horses, some super-safe campaigners and some slick riders. It was a pleasure to judge.
I love judging (as I mentioned in my post about the Judges Clinic) – and this job in Upstate New York reaffirmed that feeling. The management and staff were efficient and courteous, the facility was great and luckily, we had great weather. I would definitely like the chance to do it again.
