The Hat, the Judge, and a Lesson in Integrity–An EC Blog by Bonnie Miller

By judge Bonnie Miller:

This hat brings back a flood of memories!

The year was 2002 and my longtime colleague and friend, Butch Carse, was managing the Tampa State Fairgrounds. Butch organized a USET / NRHA Reining event and hired me and Jack Dreschler to officiate the prestigious classes as the NRHA judges.

Early in the show, Butch came to me excited about one of the vendors who was selling beautiful handmade 100X Beaver hats. For that time, it was reasonably priced at $400—a significant purchase, but not outrageous for a truly exceptional hat.

During one of the breaks, I wandered over to the vendor trailer, got measured, and ended up purchasing what has become my favorite hat of all time. It was a special edition, handcrafted piece, and more than twenty years later it remains my go-to hat.

Jack accompanied me when I picked it up. The moment we stepped outside the trailer, he launched into a full critique of my financial decision.

“What is wrong with you?” he demanded.

He proceeded to give me grief about spending that much money on a hat, and he didn’t let up for quite a while. Of course, that only made the memory better. Looking back now, I can still hear him teasing me about it. Despite his opinion, I have never regretted that purchase for a single day.

The other memory from that event is not nearly as pleasant.

A third NRHA judge had been hired to officiate some of the non-USET classes. I won’t name him because he is still actively judging major events today. What I will say is that he worked very hard to convince Butch that he should be selected as the second judge alongside Jack for the prestigious USET classes.

To Butch’s credit, he stuck with his original plan – Jack and me.

During one lunch break, this judge made a statement to Jack and me that I have never forgotten.

“I learned a long time ago,” he said, “that a single judge in a three-judge event can control the outcome.”

Unfortunately, he wasn’t speaking theoretically.

Over the course of several aged events, I watched him put that philosophy into practice. It remains one of the most blatant examples of intentional manipulation that I witnessed during my judging career. It was a stark reminder that not every mistake on a score sheet is actually a mistake.

Throughout my years of judging, I certainly made errors. Every judge has. But when I made one, it was an honest mistake—a moment of human imperfection—not a calculated effort to alter the outcome of a class.

That experience reinforced something I always believed: integrity is the most important piece of equipment a judge carries into the arena. More important than a rulebook. More important than experience. More important than reputation.

Today, though, when I look at that hat, I don’t think about scorecards or politics. I think about Jack. I think about the laughter, the miles traveled, the shows judged together, and the decades of friendship we shared.

And I can still hear him telling me I was crazy for spending $400 on a hat.

As it turns out, it may have been one of the best investments I ever made—not because of the hat itself, but because of the memories that came with it.

(I especially love the contrast in this story: one memory reminds me why I treasured Jack’s friendship, and the other reminds me of why integrity matters so much in the judging profession. Together, they tell a larger story than either memory could tell alone.)

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Thank you to Bonnie for allowing us to share another heartfelt story from the judge’s perspective!

Read her last blog, Reflections of a Horse Show Judge:

Reflections of a Horse Show Judge by Bonnie Miller | Equine Chronicle