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Time taken to calculate winner questionable

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Editor,

As a first time guest, I found the Round Pen Shoot Out held Aug 9 and 10 to be interesting and educational. The training made common sense and has “transfer” analogies to everyday family life. I especially liked the slow and tender way the horses were trained.

I am also appreciative of the excellent job the announcer did in explaining everything. Without it, I would have come away with only a sore bottom.  

My main point is that Levi Walchuk trained his horse well and was the first to become “one” with his horse and was first to saddle and ride. On the second night, this team completed all mandatory obstacles (although crossing the bridge sideways) with observable “bonding.”

On the other hand, Levi Guenzler had considerable difficulty establishing a meaningful trust relationship with his horse and was last to perform most every observable task and never did demonstrate a trust relationship with his horse. He also failed the gate (by not completely closing it) and his horse was generally uncooperative.

Following the judges’ decision, I asked several around me about the results. They all agreed that second place was correct, but that the first and third place of the two Levis should have been reversed. 

This brings me to my final point. There was an excessive amount of time given to the “adding” of the points by a third party who was not a judge. Way too long. Understand, I am not accusing anyone of any wrongdoing, but a wise person once wrote, avoid the very appearance of evil. Wise folks always keep an “arm’s length” in matters such as this. I would like to suggest that in the future, the three judges add their own scores among themselves, determine the winner, and simply give the results to the announcer. Nothing more.  This takes much less time and removes any potential of “third party” calculation mistakes.

Had it been done, maybe the results would have still been the same. On the other hand, it could have easily been the other way around. I will always wonder.

Charles Huffman
Tacoma, Wash.

 

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