effect on the deficit, while a less drastic move such as
awarding only the “cookies” without the plaques would
cover the majority.
Because we want a unique national show
The one thing that would turn NAN into “just another
show”, potentially destroying its standing in the hobby, is
the loss of the three-judge system. In Kentucky, entrants
can go to BreyerFest Live, show under a single judge, and
have the opportunity to win Special Run Breyers. They
can also show at Stone’s Equilocity event, also with Special Runs as prizes.
NAN is a national championship show because it is
judged by a panel of judges nominated from the hobby
by the hobby. That is why entrants are willing to pay more,
and to pay per-horse-per-class.
NAN should remain not only nominally a National show,
but functionally and actually, by retaining the three-judge
system.
Nationals
History
by Heather
Malone-Bogle
In 1994, a group of
hobbyists thought that
the time had come to put together a national championship show. However, they came across a lot of potential
obstacles to putting their plan into motion. One of the
serious concerns facing this considerable endeavor was
the selection of the judges.
Travel to distant shows was uncommon at the time, so
the model horse community tended to be very regional.
This meant that while a participant might know their local judges well, they probably had never even heard of
someone who was well-respected a hundred miles away.
Would a shower from the East Coast trust the opinion of
a judge from the West Coast and vice versa? Would the
very shadow of suspicion doom this show before it even
had a chance to be something?
The original Steering Committee decided to get around
this by creating a panel of judges to take on each class,
modeled after Arabian championship shows. Every effort
would be made to make sure each judge was from a different region. Each judge would independently judge the
class, and each horse that was pinned would score points.
The highest number of points would be the champion and
so on. This was a new idea in the hobby, and as such, no
one had a frame of reference for it, so it probably was an
advantage to the new show.
“Three...or One?”
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