This weekend, I attended the Oklahoma Dressage Society’s annual general meeting and year end awards banquet. I wasn’t receiving an award, but I wanted to support my friends who were. I also wanted to put in an appearance on behalf of work; we provided the prizes! It was a good time for sure- good food, good company, and stunning views of Tulsa!
Work provides year end award prizes for several local organizations- Oklahoma Dressage Society, Green County Chapter, Hunter/Jumper Exhibitors of Oklahoma- as well as national organizations like the Westfalen Horse Association. We also sponsor various high point awards at shows; these range from a weekly high point award during the Adequan Global Dressage Festival to the local HJEO’s Mini Medal at their fall show.
Prizes tend to fall into one of two categories: stuff for the horse or gift cards.
There are saddle pads.
And bridle bags.
And coolers.
Every now and then, a group will opt for clothing like vests or jackets (as GCC did this year):
And, of course, you simply have to include a huge ribbon.
What kind of year end awards or special prizes do you like to receive? Are you happiest with a saddle pad? A swanky cooler? Something for yourself? Or would you rather have a gift card so you can choose?
Honestly I’d be happy to have any year end award so long as it included a ribbon 🙂
I know, right? RIBBONS 4 LIFE
I’m with Lauren; I like the satin. But I also really enjoy prizes that have the award embroidered on them in some way like a jacket, cooler, or saddle pad. I think it’s fun to be able to show it off a little, and just to have such concrete proof of our success. Whenever I use the item I’ll think of the memories and success of the year or that led up to the class or what have you.
I like saddle pads too, although I have won exactly one and am too afraid to use it because it looks so nice lolz
Love ribbons, and trophy buckles! I’ve received saddle pads in the past, meh, clothing is only good if they ask your size, otherwise i end up with oversized stuff I can’t/won’t wear. Still lusting after those damn coolers.
Trophy buckles might go over well here in Oklahoma- I hadn’t thought of those!
Gist and Dale Chavez have made my favorite buckles! Not a Montana Silversmiths fan. There’s also a ton of smaller businesses that do them and I bet would love the chance!
My very favorites are the saddles I’ve won, but those are a little uh, bigger, than say a saddle pad 😉 Other great ones have been belt buckles, spurs (my western trophy spurs are one of my favorites of all time and I wear them every time I ride), director’s chairs, coolers, embroidered halters and then there’s something so special about a classic silver plate or trophy (…like an AQHA World Globe cough cough cough cough). I’m not a fan so much of gift cards and we didn’t usually get big ribbons in addition to the other things. BUT – I NEED a neck ribbon in my life.
You know, I wonder if we could do engraved english spurs! That would be a super neat prize. I won a neck ribbon last year and it always makes me happy to look at it! (Even if it was for intro level dressage, hahaha!)
HUGE MOTHERFUCKING RIBBONS THAT GO AROUND THE NECK.
I’m not even kidding you, I saw one of these in the premium for a dressage show series where you had to enter 3 of the 6 shows to qualify for the championships show where you then had a chance to win the neck ribbon and IMMEDIATELY CHANGED ALL MY SHOW PLANS to shoot for the neck ribbon. Yes, changed all my plans to try for a $10 piece of satin I could just buy for myself.
Don’t care. Needs it.
We award neck ribbons for our schooling show championships and for various classes at our recognized show! People totally lose their shit for them, which I completely understand.
Agree with all the above in regards to big ribbons. If there’s also a prize I like when it’s useful. Saddle pads, coolers, halters, etc. are good.
It seems like for year end awards, the bigger the better is the mindset for ribbons! GCC (the local group) gives these ENORMOUS like 3′ long champion and reserve champion ribbons while ODS (the state group) gives away a much smaller ribbon. Everyone always gripes about the small ribbon lol!
Ribbons and coolers. I love my cooler <3
Coolers ALWAYS seem to go over well!
I’ve never gotten a year end aware </3 Hoping to this year!
I’ve never gotten one either, but it’s my list this year too! 😀 We can do it!
those are all super nice! i like things that are embroidered with the award or organization name and year, but don’t actually care too much for clothing. i recently won some leather care gear so that was kinda exciting, and our org gave out dressage whips too tho i didn’t win one
Hmm GCC gives out high point awards at every show; I wonder if a leather care kit would be a good prize? That would work for classical and western dressage people…
I love me a pretty long ribbon… And neck ribbons too! But neck ribbons would be silly for year end banquets. They’re best for when your horse is in attendance for sure. As for prizes, I’ve won coolers, saddle pads, shipping halters, chairs, jackets, picture frames… New England Horseman’s Council gives you a list of prizes you can choose from. But they don’t show you the actual items and I picked poorly last year. I went with a duffle bag, thinking it would be nice like they give to the kids at their finals but it was a really poor quality bag. Should have gone with the picture frame! I think my favorites were the coolers my local association used to give. They were Triple Crown wool. GORGEOUS! Now they give fleece ones which are nice and useful, but the quality is so much less.
A big ribbon would be good enough for me. But I’d love to win a cooler.