By my calculations, & in 1990 dollars, the Too Big anti-sweat cost me $3K 
@gradytb, I LOVE that print! I would love to win something like that. One year, a local artist donated some plaques painted like older hunt prints. My gray horse won one with a bay on it and my friend’s bay won a gray horse. We traded and I know I still have mine!
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I won lots of lovely wool coolers as a junior, which I treasured. My favorites, though, were and are the checks! Gimme some money to pay my bills- the best is coming out ahead, which (admittedly) doesn’t happen very often.
The weirdest thing I won for a championship was this small glass rabbit that sat on a little stand with a light in it. So it lit up. My mom and I took it out of the box and set it up and were like: Hunh. Look at that. 
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That’s so fun! This old print is part of a series—I’ve seen it online a couple times and at one point, saw a couple of the others in the series. It was old in 1975! I saw a post further up about picture frames. I’d forgotten that I won 2 pewter frames at the Detroit Horse Show and still have those.
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The print is lovely. I would love that.
Picture frames (especially if there’s a show photog) are great prizes.
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Dressage land here, but the best thing I ever one was a directors type chair with show and champion whatever embroidered on the back piece. That was roughly 2007-2008 and I still have it in the back of my car and use it regularly.
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Years ago I catch rode a pony at the town fair and walked away with the walk/trot/jog championship chair embroidered with “[town nickname] Fair Walk/Trot/Jog Champion Year” in big letters. I still have it and break it out for travel horse shows, my spouse dies a little inside (both because it’s w/t/j and because it’s older than every horse there)
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Was it a nightlight? Asking because years ago I won something similar, and I was told it was a nightlight. But it was a turtle. And I won it at a dog show. Which makes perfect sense, right?
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This is a big pet peeve of mine… I feel like with the money we fork out for entries, nomination fees, and office fees… you can know your audience and reward accordingly.
As much as I love WEC, it wasn’t ideal this year when pony kid won in back-to-back weeks… chapstick, candles, and a cheese/cutting board. Like…come on. This is a standout winter circuit…I realize that sometimes they run low, but that was just comical.
I’ve liked the shows that let you select from a prize case or table… I think PBIEC and Tryon both did it.
Yeti cups are great… tote bags, backpacks, phone/hip belts are always useful. Beach towels are fun. Throw blankets work nicely. Halters with plates are great. They have zip picnic blankets that were also useful.
What I’d love to see?
- Places that have monogrammers… a gift certificate for a shirt/polo with a free mono, or a set amount that can be used towards an upgraded item (jacket, vest, etc).
- Gift card for a charcuterie spread from a local venue for 5-6 people ( or with amount able to used to towards upgrade if desired).
I think it was at Thermal or Sonoma a few years ago, they gave out Hermes blankets for a circuit award. I saw a photo of a kid with it and it was beautiful. Would love something like that for circuit champion or larger class awards.
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Hmm. It might have been a nightlight, but if it was, it would have been a creepy nightmare one. I turned it on once in the dark to see what it would look like and the rabbit looked possessed and as if it was about to levitate or shoot a death ray or something. I ended up ditching the base and just had the glass rabbit sitting around my room. I need to ask my mom if she still has it kicking around somewhere!
What did you use your turtle for? Maybe the show organizers shopped at the same place for tacky/odd prizes!
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The foldable stool is actually just the ticket for getting in and out of the horse trailer dressing room when you are carrying a saddle, if you’ve got typical older lady horserider hips. There’s no way I can just step up and in without a step stool nowadays.
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I am starting a stationery business, and some of the products are personalized stationery (think “from the desk of”) that are horsey. I was considering donating prizes for some shows to help spread word-of-mouth, but now I am not so sure… I think I would be gutted if the recipient wasn’t happy with the prize and it was something I was responsible for.
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I mean I think it depends who is getting the prize/the nature of the stationary.
The tweens and kiddos? Probably not as enthused.
But if you have magnetic stationary lists and post-its? Heck I would be ecstatic because that’s the only way my household functions.
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I will PM you!!!
I would like notecards. I think that’s really fun.
Do you do a riding journal? I bet people of all ages would like that!
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Yes and yes! Let’s chat.
Make up a basket, including your notepads. Add some pens, horsey treats, a horsey mug with hot chocolate mix, some fancy chocolate bars, cookies, maybe candied pecans, that sort of thing.
Or make one up that’s more horse-oriented like your notepads, horse treats, a whiteboard and dry erase markers for the barn, thick merino wool socks for wearing at the barn in cold weather, tack cleaner and conditioner (love Passier Lederbalsam - smells heavenly), a jelly scrubber brush for bathing, one of those rubber squeegee things (instead of a metal sweat scraper), all things that should work for any discipline.
I think that would work for anybody of any age too. No worries about wine going to a kid, or stickers going to an adult, or coffee going to someone who doesn’t drink coffee. Or having the wrong size item for horse or human. I think those could be welcome prizes and include your stationery items nicely.
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Wait. I know what this thing actually is: a head cradle for the beach, when you’re lying on your back. Smaller and lighter than a rolled-up towel. I spotted them in a catalog several years ago.
Could you see yourself? People would think you’re in orthopaedic traction. Yeah, let me just pull out my head cradle.
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These things are great until you have 50 of each. I do another sport that moved away from medals about 15 years ago when people were complaining that they wanted useful prizes. Well, now I have a ton of bags of various types and a ton of water bottles/mugs/glasses. The newest trend has been to award locally made foods, which is pretty awesome except then you eat your prize and have no keepsake from your win. I’m honestly not sure what the answer is outside of money or gift cards because people have so many different tastes and needs. A prize that thrills one person will be useless clutter to another. (For example, erinmeri’s stationery, while I’m sure it’s beautiful, I would probably never use. I already have a ton of stuff like that around and I never send letters anymore. In fact I barely hand write anything period anymore.)
My medals and ribbons are in displays out where I can see them… a lot of this other stuff is away in cabinets or closets and rarely if ever used.
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I put it on my nightstand and used it a couple of times. But when it was turned on you couldn’t really tell that it was a turtle. It was just a glowing blob. A glowing, radioactive turtle blob.
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