Recently appointed member of the exclusive FEI Judging Supervisory Panel, Australian O-judge Mary Seefried is one of just six panel members world-wide and the only one chosen from outside of Europe since the panel's creation in 2011.
"The choice to elect me as a panel member was made by the FEI Dressage Committee and I believe it was based on my many years of experience as an international judge and judge educator and my reputation amongst my colleagues," Seefried told Eurodressage. "The supervisory panel plays a very new and important role as it has been very well received by both riders and judges. It is essentially there to ensure fair judging."
Looking forward to working alongside the likes of judges Dieter Schüle (GER) and Eric Lette (SWE) and trainer David Hunt (GBR), Mary feels the role will give her a new perspective on the sport.
"My role will entail not only monitoring the judging at the major Championships but also having input into selection of the long list of judges for the major FEI Championships and Olympic Games as well as having input into selection of the new 5* judges," Mary explained.
Providing a feedback loop into the improvement of judging overall, Mary and her co-panel will monitor score sheets to prevent human errors and as the panel is mandatory at the major championships such as the Olympics, World Equestrian Games and World Cup Finals, she has secured her seat at the ones that count. "I am not sure how many competitions this role with encompass, but it will probably only be one or two at most," she explained.
Certainly still available to judge at other FEI competitions, Mary believes it is essential to keep up her judging skills and particularly to keep them contemporary. "I can't afford to be out of that loop," she stated.
So, will the role of supervisor be more or less fun than judging? "Maybe fun is not the word to use," suggests Mary. "The new role will be an interesting one and I am sure it will contribute more knowledge to my role as judge educator as well. In this role we will be able to observe what movements judges are finding more difficult to come together on, maybe because of their position around the arena, and also highlight those movements that find the greatest or smallest margins between the judges marks.
Hoping to bolster this information in judging education clinics, Mary will also be able to use this acquired field knowledge in her national role, as chair of the Australian dressage committee. "This position is chosen by the Members of the Committee and I was proud they had confidence in me," she admitted.
Althought Mary has been a dressage judge for over 30 years and an FEI 5* judge for 15, I wondered if she ever wishes she was even closer to the action? "Oh yes, I do often wish I was the competitor, one often sees horses while judging whose good character shines from them and I think 'Wouldn't it be enjoyable to ride such a horse and have him looking over the stable door each morning," she confessed."
With a maximum of four terms of two years each, not necessarily consecutive, Mary hopes to use this time to have a positive impact on our sport and help educate others on the importance and rewarding experience it is to be a top dressage judge. "I would like to improve the communication between judges and riders. We are in the sport together and judges enjoy giving good scores when the basic work is correct," said Seefried. "We certainly do not like to see large differences in scores in a judging team as this leads to a lack of confidence by the riders. So I would like to see more formal and informal occasions where riders and judges could talk through issues together as stakeholders in the sport."
by Sarah Warne for Eurodressage
Photos © Astrid Appels
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