A BAPTISM of fire was how leading bloodstock agents Amanda Skiffington and Gill Richardson described their first experience of judging show horses at this year’s Dublin Horse Show.

“We both thought it a huge compliment to be asked,” said Skiffington who revealed that her grandfather was a first cousin of the great show horse producer Nat Galway Greer. “We saw some lovely horses but were surprised to see the odd capped hock. Our champion was a gorgeous filly with a lovely temperament.”

As newcomers to judging, the pair went about selecting their winners in a different way to the norm and it was a great pity that there was no commentary on the first day when the two and three-year-olds were in the ring.

On Friday, Bernard Condren, one the hard-working team of commentators in the showing rings for the week, manned the microphone and explained that the horses were being brought in in random order and then further explained what the judges were doing when they selected specific animals from the line-up.

“We feel we got the right result in the end and, while we did take our time in reaching a result it was because it was a huge responsibility as it matters so much to everyone,” concluded Skiffington.

The RDS consulted exhibitors about inviting judges from outside the showing world to officiate at Dublin in an effort to halt the increasingly crazy conspiracy theories. To my mind this has worked extremely well and if the two judges last week had their own way of going about things there is little doubt that, going on past records, they picked the right horses.