The Judge’s Box Freestyle Continuing-Ed Program Offers Live and Virtual Options Introduction to the USDF Continuing Education in Freestyle Judging Program and its remote offshoot
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udging dressage freestyles is complex. Technical execution must be assessed, even though the judge does not know the order of gaits and movements in advance. And the judge must simultaneously evaluate the freestyle’s degree of difficulty, choreography, music, and interpretation.
score-sheet-specific as well as to have a rubric to determine a score. After nine months of development by the three committees, the USDF Continuing Education in Freestyle Judging (CE FJ) program debuted in 2013. This one-day, comprehensive seminar is sponsored by a USDF group-member organization (GMO) or other approved organization. It is designed for a wide range of judges, from L graduates through US Equestrian “S” judges. To date it has been taught through many GMOs, at USEF/USDF Judges’ Clinics, and as part of two International Dressage Officials Club seminars. Read on for an overview of the CE FJ program.
Can Art Be Judged?
When freestyle first gained popularity, there were limited opportunities for judges to receive proper instruction on how to evaluate the artistic elements. Even some of the the most seasoned officials felt ill-prepared to handle the artisticimpression part of the score sheet. There was a big gap in freestyle education at all ranks, and the USDF Judges, L Education Program, and Freestyle Committees jointly wanted that gap filled. Learning general concepts and theory alone was not enough. The program needed to be
When you watch a dressage freestyle, you may think, “That was a great routine,” but could you explain why? As a judge, it’s not enough to say that the music was fun or that the choreography was interesting. Can the differences from one freestyle to the next be assessed objectively? This is an important question, given that artistic marks carry large coefficients on the freestyle score sheet. Whether the judge is evaluating the technical or the artistic aspects of a freestyle test, there is no place for “I didn’t like it.” The USDF L Education Program teaches the formula Basics + Criteria +/- Modifiers = Score as a method of assessing the movements
22 May/June 2022 | USDF CONNECTION
in a dressage test. Freestyle judging follows the same formula. Criteria for the artistic-impression score are very specific, and they too are gauged in a particular way so as to make the judging of artistic impression as objective as possible. On the USDF freestyle score sheets, several of the artistic-impression categories are followed by secondary elements. For instance, Music includes • Suitability (the music enhances the horse) (see Figure 1) • Cohesiveness (all the music selections belong together) • Seamlessness (the music editing is smooth). The CE FJ program is more than lecture sessions. Audio and video examples are played to reinforce the concepts, and participants are asked to do their own analysis. In the case of Music, they listen to a sample and decide whether it is cohesive and seamless, as well as the type of horse for which that music might be suitable. Then program participants are taught how to arrive at a score for that artistic element. Using the Music example, the judging formula Basics +/- Modifiers = Score would be expressed as Suitability +/- Cohesiveness and Seamlessness = Score. The same process—defining terms, giving examples, analyzing the category, and formulating a score—is used for each artistic category during the three-hour morning slide show. Then in the afternoon session, CE FJ program participants and auditors view freestyles at sev-
MUSIC GRAPHIC CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK
By Terry Ciotti Gallo Graphics by USDF
