Linda Zang of USA Appointed to Dressage Judges Supervisory Panel
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Jan. 7, 2015
Linda Zang, an International Equestrian Federation (FEI) 5* judge from the United States has been appointed to the dressage Judges Supervisory Panel and Uwe Mechlem, a retired judge from Germany has been re-appointed to the panel that oversees the scoring of ground juries at Olympics and major championships.
Linda, a top ranked 5* judge level, and Uwe, who retired as a judge in 2012, was on the original JSP in 2010 and rejoins the panel of five JSP members. The other three are David Hunt, a trainer of Great Britain; Henk Van Bergan, a trainer of the Netherlands, and Mary Seefried, a 5* judge of Australia.
Linda, 67 years old, of Davidsonville, Maryland, started riding in the 1960s and trained extensively in Europe with several dressage masters. She competed in the world championships in 1978 and was named with Fellow Traveller to the U.S. Olympic team in 1980 that performed at the altertnate Games in England as the U.S. and many other nations boycotted the Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.
Linda was the first U.S.-based judge to reach FEI 5* status and is also a U.S. Equestrian Federation “S” rated judge. She is one of a handful of FEI “O” judges in the world who conduct forums and seminars to educate and test FEI judges for both dressage and eventing. She has judged the top international championship including six World Cup Finals, the 1996 Olympics, 1998, 2006 and 2010 World Games, 1999 Pan American Games, 2005 European Championships and the 2009 and 2010 World Breeding Young Horse Championships.
There is no age limit for members of the JSP and they are appointed for two-year terms that can be extended indefinitely.
The JSP, consisting of three members at Olympics, World Games, continental championships at Grand Prix level and World Cup Finals, can amend an individual total score when major score discrepancies have occurred.
The JSP can correct definite technical mistakes and counting errors and make corrections to lower or raise marks. If a judge’s final score for a horse/athlete combination varies by six per cent or more from the average of the scores of the other judges, the JSP by unanimous decision can change the score to be the same as the next closest.
