In April I had the pleasure of traveling to the great Pacific Northwest’Boring, Ore., to be exact, and it was anything but. My mission this time, which I was pleased to accept, was to judge a show called the Sport Horse Classic’Arabians in Motion. My judging categories were the hunters, jumpers, dressage, and sport horses in hand, along with a few equitation classes.

Having arrived early in the afternoon to beat Portland traffic, the show management assigned a hospitality person to pick me up and entertain me for the rest of the day (and night). As soon as I introduced myself to Linda Royer at the airport, I knew that her zeal and compassion, combined with an infectious sense of humor and a great twinkle in her eye, would create an instant rapport.

We started by driving to Wilsonville, where on a two-lane road (which town officials and residents keep that way on purpose) she started to show me lovely horse farms and potential places for barns to be erected within the year. Turns out she’s a building design and site-planning landscape architect, with horse facilities her specialty. She’s working on sites in Georgia, Northern and Southern California, and Oregon.

Our next stop was to show me as many of the local vineyards as she could reach before dark, along with stopping for wine tasting. After the second tasting’with six bottles tried at each’I begged off, even though she was ready to do as many more as I wanted. You can see why I immediately liked her.

Linda had made reservations at two of the best local restaurants, thinking we could look at the menus and decide which I liked better. I was in ecstasy, a bit sloshed, and I hadn’t even checked in yet.

By the time we got to my hotel, an hour from the wine country, we’d covered a wide range of diverse topics, from grandparenthood to degrees of angles for optimum drainage of rings, to types of soil in Georgia vs. Africa vs. California. I shall never forget that afternoon, and, thinking her job done, I thanked her profusely. But it turned out she’d volunteered to be my chauffeur and dressage scribe as well. No hunter/jumper show has ever provided such wonderful and luxurious hospitality.

Thinking I might have a bit of a hangover the next morning, I asked, with trepidation, what time we started. But the management (Kaye and Richard Phaneuf) had decided there were so many dressage rides that they hired another judge to do all the training and introductory levels. So I didn’t start until 1:15 p.m. What hunter/ jumper show managers would think that way?

After a pleasant afternoon of rides through Prix St. Georges’and some nice ones too’we adjourned for dinner, at an unforgettable experience called Mongolian Barbeque, which is neither Mongolian nor a barbecue as we know it.

And then it was time for the evening class and the true purpose of this article. If you’re a dressage aficionado, you know that watching lower-level classes is like watching grass grow or paint dry.

Nevertheless, the element of dressage shows that we in hunter/jumper shows could utilize is knowing what time you ride and adjusting your day around your ride time, instead of appearing to school before the show starts and then hanging out for hours. We all get so tired of trying to estimate how long it will take to get through the various over fences classes before yours, then preparing for that time and schooling, only to be told there are rider (or worse) trainer conflicts, and at least an hour ensues.

Out here in California, at the shows he manages, Robert Ridland has provided start times for all the jumper classes, either in the show office or on the show’s website. The plan has helped the jumper world a lot, but at the expense of hunterland, ponyland, and equitationland.

As a judge, I’ve learned to bring a book or magazine to pass the time, but on the last day, when you have a plane to catch, there’s nothing worse than waiting (sometimes for an hour) for trainers from jumperland. I’m of the old school, and I believe that if you don’t have enough help for the clients you’ve brought, they either have to go in the ring or they miss the class. Period! To me it’s rude to the judge and to the other exhibitors who were on time and have other obligations, to the grooms holding horses or ponies to jog, and to the management (who shouldn’t allow it anyway). Cut-off times should be adhered to or you miss the class. If that happens a few times, I bet people will start to be on time. But I digress…

The evening class was called “Dressage Trail,” and what fun it was. It’s the creation of people from the Kansas Dressage and Combined Training Association, and it can be revamped to suit any area. In Boring, they allowed schooling while we were off at dinner.

Any type of horse at any level was eligible. The test began by entering at a trot over cavalletti poles on the way to X to halt. Next was a 20-meter circle to a mailbox, where the riders had to sort out the No. 10 envelope to show the judge. Here, one horse scooted away from that and another wouldn’t stand, so the rider dismounted, led the horse over, did her job, remounted, and finished the course. I gave her an 11 for determination and not being a D.Q., this time meaning a “drama queen.”

Other movements included crossing a bridge and picking up an egg from a basket I held up, doing a 15-meter circle with the reins in one hand, then returning the egg. I had to stand for that, too’two horses hated me and shied, but only one egg was broken! Next was stopping at hay bales, picking up a softball, walking to E, turning and throwing the ball at a cardboard figure next to the bales’two actually hit it and got bonus points.

The climaxing move was taking the reins in one hand to wave the other at the judge. The waves ranged from the empirical wave to very sexy waves, to polite waves, and finally to the gal who threw me Hershey’s Chocolate Kisses. She got a lot of bonus points.

A very large, loud audience (including all the office personnel, who refused to miss it) made this the fun event it should be. Any type of horse truly could win, and the results included Paints, purebred Arabians, and many crossbreds that I saw the next day in the sport horse breeding classes.

I had so much fun that I’m glad they’ve asked me back.