Top equestrian judges meet for training at Dannevirke

This 4-year-old thoroughbred Colombian called Tadpole is studied carefully.

Thirty equestrian judges and prospective judges attended the Dannevirke A&P Showgrounds on Sunday July 22 for tuition from two Royal Agricultural Society judges.

Visitors came from all over the North Island representing the Western and Eastern Regions of the RAS for tuition from Christine Rowe from Carterton and Alan Windle from Shannon.

Judges must undergo training every two years, each region taking its turn to host.

Dannevirke was the venue for the Eastern region's meeting, being centrally located between Wellington and Gisborne and Taranaki. Judging of horses is the key component of showing equestrian events when horses are judged for their quality and confirmation — appearance and how they are put together.

Kirsten Wahlberg holds Daisy a 5-year old Chestnut for judges to assess.

Dannevirke's Kirsten Wahlberg provided two horses to illustrate the important characteristics.

Often the one-day course just has static images.

The morning was taken up with tuition and in the afternoon there was an equestrian forum led by RAS CEO Debbie Cameron from Christchurch.

The forum covered the latest trends in showing and was open to questions about any aspect of the sport.