The organisers of the UK National Championships have announced that four esteemed international judges have been selected to officiate at their 2022 fixture, which runs from 16-17 August at Arena UK in Lincolnshire.
All the classes, aside from those for mountain and moorland (M&M) ponies, will be judged by one UK panel judge from a corresponding society and one of the four international judges.
The four individuals set to travel to the show include South African judges Gregory Goss, JJ Kemp and Zadia Mostert Schutte, and Australian judge Matt Snell. Which classes the judges will officiate in will not be released until the day of the show.
“The international judge won’t have any connection to the breeders, riders or producers, so we hope it will create suspense and level the playing field,” said UK National Championships founder and show director, Scott Dixon. “We want it to be as fair as possible and hope having ‘unknown’ judges will create transparency and encourage people to come into showing.
“All four of the judges are highly regarded and have won or bred animals who have won at all the major championships in their respective countries. It will be completely fair game on the day.”
Also returning for 2022 is the rapidly growing UK National Championships’ puissance competition.
Scott added: “We’ll be coming back bigger and better than ever. This year we also have a new committee with individuals in selected roles to look after different parts of the show.”
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