Volunteer stories: Dressage diva, 1999

I used to volunteer at horse shows -- dressage shows -- and my favorite activity is scoring. But one day, it was raining and windy and no one wanted to be the ring steward for two rings. The volunteer coordinator asked me to do it, and I agreed.

Big. Mistake.

I really don't like the job.  I wear glasses, and it's hard to see the competitor numbers in the rain. Some competitors seem to take the presence of a steward as license to ignore the time. And there were a lot of scratches and lots of changes to track.

In the afternoon we were cranking through the upper level rides. A beautifuly made up middle-aged woman rode in on her gray horse, and rode a lovely test. As she rode I thought to myself that the rider looked like Elizabeth Taylor. Classy lady, classy horse, classy ride.  It seemed that way.

During the test, a dressage marker fell over into the ring as the pair passed it. There was no performance issue that I could detect. I was glad for her. After the test, the woman rode over to me and exclaimed "Oh, you'd better re-set that marker! It'll be a problem for the next person in the ring." She waited pointedly, and I obliged her by putting the marker upright. I thought little of it.

The rider rode directly over to the judge. They talked for several minutes. Curious. Then, a few moments later, he technical delegate for the show came to talk to me. Apparently there's a RULE that when something goes wrong with the ring (e.g., an overturned marker),  it's supposed to be left alone until the end of the rides for that test. What surprised me was that the nice lady on the gray was the one to complain to the judge. She told the judge that I had incorrectly changed the marker, and it wasn't fair that other riders didn't have to contend with the down marker. She wanted to re-ride the movement.

So she used the incident to argue for a re-ride of a movement. I was mortified and angry, and I told the TD that I had move the marker at the rider's directive. The TD nodded knowingly, and I got the impression this lady was not shocked in the least. I bet in her role as TD she'd seen it all. She talked to the judge, and they let the lady on the gray back into the ring. She re-rode the movement.

The TD came over to me afterward. "Well, that wasn't a good tactical move." Her re-ride scored one point lower than the original movement had scored. It was probably my worst experience as a volunteer-- and there have been many more wonderful volunteer experiences! This "positive" of this incident was that it introduced me to the role of a TD, and helped to spark my interest in learning to be a rule maven myself.