Judges & Gunners
Who may judge an English Springer Spaniel field trial, who holds the AKC spaniel hunt test approval, and who is qualified to gun. Look someone up and contact them.
Field Trial Judges
171 judges on the list
Qualified by ESSFTA. Apprentice date, Open and Amateur stakes judged, most recent stake, and what the AKC directory records where the judge is listed there.
List as of 2026-10-19
AKC directoryHunt Test Judges
129 approved judges
AKC-approved for Hunting Test Spaniels: approval date, Junior, Senior and Master tests judged, and the last AKC seminar. Refreshed monthly.
AKC directory read 2026-10-19
ESSFTA listGunners
985 gunners on the list
Qualified through ESSFTA gunning seminars: gun captains (G), qualified gunners (Q) and partially qualified gunners (P), by interclub, with the latest seminar.
List as of 2026-10-19 · 815 entries still unconfirmed
Field trial judges are listed from ESSFTA's own judges list. The AKC does not license spaniel field trial judges: ESSFTA qualifies them through its apprentice program, so the AKC Judges Directory's "Field Trial Spaniels" category is not a complete list. Where a judge appears in that directory, the AKC columns show what it records.
Hunt test judges are the AKC-approved "Hunting Test Spaniels" judges, read from the AKC Judges Directory and refreshed monthly.
Gunners are qualified through ESSFTA gunning seminars: AKC Field Trial Rules for Spaniels, chapter 1 section 5, require every gunner at an English Springer Spaniel trial to have passed an ESSFTA Gunning Seminar and Gun Captains to be graduates of the ESSFTA Field Trial Gunning Program. ESSFTA keeps the list.
Phone numbers and email addresses are shown so a club can ask a judge or gunner whether they are available. Hunt test judges' details are the ones the AKC directory publishes for show-giving clubs. Anyone who prefers not to be listed reads "Contact via ESSFTA": ask the club. Street addresses are not shown.