What specific qualities do hazard judges evaluate during marathon obstacles?

At each hazard in the marathon phase, judges are positioned to verify that the driver navigates through the required gates in the correct sequence, to measure the time from entry to exit, and to record any rule violations that occur during the hazard negotiation. The judge's evaluation is primarily objective — verifying sequence, recording time, and noting violations — rather than the subjective quality assessment that dressage judging involves. The correct sequence of gates is the non-negotiable requirement of each hazard — every gate must be taken in the prescribed letter sequence from the first to the last, and no amount of efficiency in the line selection or pace can compensate for taking a gate in the wrong order or missing one entirely. A driver who enters a hazard without having memorized the complete gate sequence for that specific obstacle is taking a risk that course knowledge eliminates. The efficiency of the line through each hazard — the number of meters the vehicle travels between the entry and the exit — is the factor that determines how fast a correctly sequenced hazard navigation is. Two drivers who navigate the same hazard in the correct sequence will produce different times if one takes a shorter, more efficient path through the gate sequence than the other. The driver who has walked the hazard carefully and identified the most direct path between each gate, and who can execute that planned line accurately under competition conditions, will consistently produce faster hazard times. Safety violations — actions by the driver, grooms, or horse that violate the rules of safe hazard navigation — result in penalty additions or elimination that the hazard judge records and reports to the technical delegate. Driving safely through each hazard is both a competitive and a welfare requirement that the judging structure enforces throughout the marathon phase.