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Judge's Notebook: Scoring the 2025 National Show
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Every year after the National I am asked the same question: “What was the judge thinking?” This notebook answers it with real score sheets (anonymized) from the 2025 inspection classes.
Where horses earned points
The highest type scores went to horses shown fit but not fat. The Akhal-Teke standard rewards a dry, lean outline; a grand-prix-warmblood body condition obscures exactly the features we are scoring. The champion mare carried a body condition score of about 4.5 — and her topline still scored a 9 because the conditioning was muscle, not cover.
Metallic sheen scored best on horses shown in natural coat under sun. Two otherwise excellent entries lost the sheen subscore to heavy show-ring polish products, which flatten the refractive quality judges are looking for.
Where points were lost
The most common deduction, by a wide margin, was presentation at the trot. The breed’s gait should be flat, low, and reaching; handlers who run flat-out turn it into a hurried shuffle. Practice trotting in hand at a measured pace — the judge needs about six strides of honest rhythm, not speed.
Second most common: feet. A desert breed with historically excellent hooves keeps arriving with long toes and underrun heels. It costs conformation points and it shortens careers.
Preparing for 2026
The scoring rubric is unchanged for this year’s National. Bring your horse fit, clean, and barefoot-or-sensibly-shod, school the in-hand trot, and skip the coat dressing. The full annotated rubric and a video walkthrough of the 2025 champion’s inspection are in the document library.