Judging School Handbook - American Morgan Horse Association

Ethics As They Relate to Judges, An Exhibitor’s Viewby Albert A. Lucine, Jr., MDIt is difficult to think of a field in which the acceptanceand use of an ethical/moral standard plays amore important role than in the field of judginghorses. I would like to review some definitions of thewords “ethics” and “moral.”ETHICS:— Derived from the Greek word “ethos,” the mannerand habits of men.— The study of standards of conduct and moraljudgement, moral philosophy.— The system or code of morals of a particularphilosopher, profession.— The rules or principles which govern right conduct.MORAL:— Relating to, dealing with, or capable of makingthe distinction between right and wrong inconduct.ETHICS:— The systematic study of the nature of value concepts,good, bad, right, wrong, etc., and of thegeneral principles which justify us in applyingthem to anything; also called moral philosophy.Organized society exists with the aid of formal lawsupplemented by moral or ethical standards. Manyof the laws or rules by which a society, profession, orgroup conducts itself cannot be formally recorded,the written rule cannot govern or cover all situations.Yet more and more, it appears we pass rulesand regulations in an attempt to control the behaviorof those who do not conform to a moral or ethicalstandard. I believe this is evident today in all levelsof government and all professions and groups.Let me repeat, it is difficult to think of a field inwhich the acceptance and use of an ethical and/ormoral standard plays a more important role than inthe field of judging horses. Consider the following: aphysician, although he may legally treat a member ofhis family, will usually not treat a family memberwith a serious illness for fear his personal feelingsand emotions may prejudice or influence his medicaljudgment; a trial judge will disqualify himself fromhearing a case in which he has a personal interest.Compare these two relatively simple situationswhere members of a profession exclude themselvesbecause of personal interest or emotions to the following:Picture the dilemma that faces a horse showjudge with almost every class he adjudicates; 20-30horses to complete the class, one or two by his ownstallion (the foundation of his family’s breeding programfor the past ten years), one or two horses fromhis breeding program that he trained and sold(including a filly out of his favorite show mare thathe expected to be the next Grand NationalChampion, but had to sell this year to make a profit),one or two kids in open classes whom he had asequitation students for about five years, and there isgood old Charlie Professional, who taught himalmost everything he knows, riding his great newshow horse, there’s Jim Trainer who has a red hotprospect for the $25,000 horse he wants to sell, andthere’s Joe Manager who manages that prestigioushorse show he’s always wanted to judge. By the timeI list all the possible conflicts of interest, the classwill be judged and out of the ring.There is no substitute for a judge’s integrity and ethicalstandards, as there is absolutely no way we canpass rules to govern all the above conditions! Norcan we exclude all horsemen, trainers, veterinarians,etc., from judging our horses. The butcher, baker,and the candlestick maker are of very little use to usin the center ring. Those of us who are interested inhorses and particularly interested in exhibiting inhorse shows are a very small segment of our society.It is inevitable the judge, whoever he or she is, willbe known to many of the exhibitors and will facemany of the conflicts of interest mentioned above.Broad guidelines as to how a class is to be judged canbe established, but the main criteria we must rely onis the integrity and ethical standards of our judges.Foremost, a judge must be able to live with himself;to know, in his opinion, his placings are inherentlycorrect. In order to accomplish this, he must have athorough knowledge of the rules governing the show,a thorough knowledge of the standards for the breedand for the specific classes he will be judging, and he6