The best and worst prizes at shows

[StormyDay]

Best, leather halters. They had a selection of sizes. I also have gotten plaques with the class name and placing, and of course, money is always good too. I’ve also always thought a baseball cap embroidered with the show info would be a good prize, since most are one size fits all.

Worst is when I ‘won’ a stack of used horse magazines which were the local free ones, and about 300 dover saddlery bumper stickers. It was literally a box full of stickers. I had no idea what to do with them.

I also once won a blanket that was embroidered with the show name, but the blanket was like maybe 3x3 feet in size?? It was odd.

[TheBigEasy]

My DH is wondering WTH I’m laughing about. This is so fun!! I’m still laughing about the lamp and turtle and olive oil.

As a junior, I got a duffel bag with my name/circuit embroidered. The zipper promptly broke but I still keep the darn thing.
Got a jacket in the 90s that is very “Members Only”-esque with my name and club. I still bust that one out at times.

For the super low dollar schooling show stuff, I love the gift basket idea. Some carrots and apples, a small gift card (even $5 for Starbucks) and a brush or comb would cover the appeal of most of the clientele.

[Night_Flight]

I’ve found that the Jockey Club is quite good at selecting prizes for the TIP awards. As others have noted, I’ve accumulated a lot of their more common prizes, such as insulated mugs, but I once won a lovely quality leather halter for their year-end awards, and a very nice leather lead shank just for having entered my results for an Ontario-bred horse. I also have a backpack embroidered with the Jockey Club logo that I’ve found use for.

It’s really tough, I think, to maintain enough variety to keep people from winning the same thing again and again while also selecting prizes that will appeal to or fit the majority of riders/horses.

Even with a prize table, that’s one more volunteer or employee needed to man it, and it limits your prizes to general items that don’t include any class or division information, if that’s something that you like.

[Renn_aissance]

@StormyDay

I also once won a blanket that was embroidered with the show name, but the blanket was like maybe 3x3 feet in size?? It was odd.

A lap blanket for spectating. The human version of a coolerette.

I won one of these one year- the tailgate version, fleece on one side and a water-resistant poly layer on the other. Apparently I was the only person who liked it. I love it- I keep it in my car for chilly horse shows, use it as a seat cover when I come in wet and muddy and don’t want to wreck the car, and have been known to wear it as a skirt when I’m standing around outside in the cold.

[DMK]

Hah! As a former HP turned combined driver, I know what you mean!

Some shows do give something nice for first place, directors chairs seem to be the thing. But others just give a ribbon (naturally these are the places I’ll pull out a win).

And as a collector of many years of ribbons and stuff, good and bad, now I’ve learned to be attached to the hard struggle to finish. Or that’s what I tell myself when I pull out a 4th at the biggest show of the year in a huge division… And ribbons are only given down to 3rd… It’s the struggle, it’s the score, it’s knowing you did your best, blah, blah, blah… Myself wanted the ribbon, make no mistake).

But the best series championship award I got was a really nice mounted plant hanger with a hunting scene (the fox had a collar with a tag that supported the show title). It’s still mounted on my front porch column with a flower basket.

[findeight]

@giddybiddy

Pop Socket” and a cheapo embroidered dish rag. Still so proud of those ribbons, but the prizes were so lackluster

that brings back memories of my least favorite awards. It was a big deal Arab show in So Cal where we were envisioning silver plate and they gave cheapo, fugly plastic King Tut Trivets. They had his face stamped on the plastic crooked and he had blue eyes. Of course between us we won a half dozen…determined to get some use out of it, used it then put it in the dishwasher where it melted into the rack.

On the plus side when I showed Western got some really nice belt buckles for year end championships I still have. Some heavy silver trays and a champagne bucket for show Champion. In Hunters got a pair of directors chair frames with a gift certificate for my choice of seat color and embroidery. Hand made lamp with portrait of horse, horse’s name, what we won and a tricolor ribbon banging from the bridle.

That lamp is still on my nightstand 20 years later. Still have that silver champagne bucket too and thats from 1976 or so.

[vxf111]

Those small blankets are good for display so you can bring a blanket rack to the show and hang it filled with all the mini blankets folded with the embroidery showing… like a resume of the places you’ve won. I see that at the setups at big hunter shows.

[erinmeri]

@LookinForSpace

Make up a basket, including your notepads.

I love this idea!

[trubandloki]

@Tini_Sea_Soldier1

I’ve liked the shows that let you select from a prize case or table

When this is what happens I always seemed to be in one of the last divisions so when I got to the table there was nothing anyone wanted left. So I personally hate those tables.

What these threads prove every time this topic comes up is that no one prize works for everyone. What makes one person totally happy makes the next person wonder what they were thinking.

For example, I have no need for a picture frame. Ever.

[Tini_Sea_Soldier1]

This is true. We do have a dedicated garage space now full of metal Hydroflask/Yeti/Tervis cups.

[Old_Mac_Donald]

A bag of horse feed. Which, great! That stuff is expensive.

But… I don’t feed this! Luckily I had an oldie in the paddock who scored it, because it didn’t matter if that potential rocket fuel sent her a bit loopyloo.

Bags of feed are always being given away as they are donated by the local feedshop, which is LOVELY don’t get me wrong! But if you don’t feed that particular feed, it’s a bit of a waste. I’d much rather get a token gift voucher, even at less than the wholesale cost of donating a bag of feed, to said feedstore.

I’ve never won a rug, and always wondered how they ensured the rug was the right size for the winning horse!!

Edit. NGL, I would love that gourmet olive oil. …

[Tini_Sea_Soldier1]

Ehhh… I was a procrastinator at both PBIEC and Tryon and still managed to get a few nice items. Sometimes you just have to also inquire if they have a few more items available. They sometimes don’t put out everything and save for the following week, but if you make the point that you’re over 40 and a stuffed animal isn’t cutting it, they sometimes find things.

[furlong47]

See, I’m 42 and I still love a cute stuffed animal. One of my favorite non-ribbon/medal prizes of all time is a little stuffed animal with an embroidered ribbon with the event name, date, my class and placing. But one of my other favorites is an engraved pocket knife. Who would even guess that the same person would enjoy both of those?

[2tempe]

@StormyDay

Worst is when I ‘won’ a stack of used horse magazines which were the local free ones, and about 300 dover saddlery bumper stickers. It was literally a box full of stickers. I had no idea what to do with them.

Oh my gosh, this must be a winner.

[MHM]

@2tempe

@StormyDay

Worst is when I ‘won’ a stack of used horse magazines which were the local free ones, and about 300 dover saddlery bumper stickers. It was literally a box full of stickers. I had no idea what to do with them.

Oh my gosh, this must be a winner.

I have to wonder if the box of stickers was a mixup. Maybe the person in charge of handing out prizes was supposed to give out one sticker with each prize.

[trubandloki]

@StormyDay

but the blanket was like maybe 3x3 feet in size??

Lap rug.
I have one of those, thought mine is slightly larger.

I won it at a show too. It was a series where many people rode lesson horses so they chose champion prizes that the rider could use.

[Tini_Sea_Soldier1]

Ohhhh I hope we’re at the same show! I love the picture frames… we can totally trade.

[Tini_Sea_Soldier1]

I’d actually love a useful thing like a bag of horse feed or dog food. Bc honestly, even if I didn’t need or want it, the ability to pass it along and donate it makes me happier than any glassware or mug (though the Snowbird soup mugs from like 20 years ago are still almost a weekly item used at my house).
Truth be told…I also just watched Danny & Ron’s Rescue movie (Life in the Doghouse) and legit wanted to write them into my will after the movie… so I’m all about the donations right now.

[poltroon]

It is such a challenge to come up with something that will be attractive and meaningful both to the person who wins all the time and to the person who is winning for the first time.

Giving people choices is nice. I love the idea of being able to monogram items on the spot. I treasure some of my various glassware with attractive show logos.

The boot bag I have that was monogrammed with my year-end award is still treasured and used 30 years later. But I wouldn’t have needed 5 of them

The chairs seem to be a good one-size-fits-most and it takes a while to accumulate too many.

Giving people a prize like that or an alternate option for a gift certificate seems like maybe the best case scenario - the people who are in need of a keepsake get one, people who have many can either select something they do need or even give it away. Cash is of course good too but can be a little more challenging to deal with sometimes.

The first time I won in eventing, I got a gift certificate to Mary’s Tack and Feed that turned into a very beautiful bridle that I still treasure.

[MHM]

@poltroon

The boot bag I have that was monogrammed with my year-end award is still treasured and used 30 years later. But I wouldn’t have needed 5 of them

I still have a big duffel bag from a horse show many years ago. A friend of mine won every class in her division, so she ended up with five of them, and gave away a few to her friends.

It may have been after that show that the manager started getting different prizes for the different classes. Lol.