Abstract
Abstract. The presented research investigates the effect of the judge on scores for horse free jumping skills, the agreement of judge's scores and relations of these scores with measured jumping parameters received by video image analysis in order to recognise judging preferences and trait definition. The investigation was based on a group of 32 warm-blooded stallions that were judged in free jumping by six experienced judges in five routinely evaluated jumping traits. Simultaneously horses were filmed during jumping and linear jumping parameters were measured. Additional jumping parameters were calculated to describe the jumping style in a more detailed way. The influence of the effect of the judge was estimated by analysis of variance, the relationships between judges' notes and jumping parameters by analysis of correlations. The effect of the judge was statistically significant for all traits. The correlations between individual judges' notes were not equal. The notes for particular traits were in some cases more correlated with other traits like with notes for the same trait. Mean notes for evaluated traits were correlated above 0.6 between each other. Correlations between judges' notes and measured jumping parameters were low and medium. Some jumping parameters were correlated with all traits whereas some parameters were not correlated at all. Received results showed that the definition of the traits evaluated by judges is not the same for all of them. However, for all judges the distance of landing, elevation of the body and lifting of front limbs were the most important parameters of the jump.
Highlights
The quality of breeding is always based on conducting correct selection, which should be founded on the proper and adequate evaluation of selected traits.That is of special importance for traits scored subjectively like it is widely used in sport horse breeding
The aim of the present paper was to investigate the effect of the judge on horse free jumping evaluation, the agreement of judges' scores and their correlations with measured jumping parameters received using video image analysis
The material was collected at a performance test station for young horses
Summary
The quality of breeding is always based on conducting correct selection, which should be founded on the proper and adequate evaluation of selected traits.That is of special importance for traits scored subjectively like it is widely used in sport horse breeding. Comparison of the data definition is the basic requirement for further national or international horse breeding evaluation (Koenen & Aldrige 2002). The decision-making process is a very complicated task, especially in case of biological objects like moving horses connected with real-time evaluation. The evaluation of objects in movement might be more difficult and affected by judges' expectations or bias in observations. The practice of judging requires certainty and understanding of the task, a stabile performance level and a learned ability to activate specific parts of the brain (Braddick 1997). According to Funder (1999 by Morris et al 2002) good judging is connected with the trait (some traits are judged more than others), the judge (some persons are better judges than others) and the target (some individuals are judged more than others)
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