I agree, I’d be thrilled with this!
As a kid I won a little jar of gray boot polish. ??
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Best and worst combined into one was twelve 50 pound bags of horse feed. The feed was appreciated but there was no help volunteered to load the 600 pounds of bags. They were just left on a shipping pallet next to the ring at the end of the show.
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Imagine winning that and not having room in your truck/trailer to bring it home. 
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One circuit here is giving out the usual coolers for champion, BUT they have table set up where you can take your cooler and exchange it for something else. They have some nice options, vests, jackets, blankets, pillows, etc.
They also have something set up if you want to turn in your ribbons you can exchange for smaller items. I didn’t read all the info on the ribbon exchange.
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Oh, I love this.
I am not one to do anything with ribbons so this would be fun.
Building on that idea… how great would it be to have a reserve champion circuit award that’s a gift card to do a ribbon wreath or shadow box. Let circuit champ get the cooler… but let reserve have a fun award too… speaking from a reserve champ annual winner that wasn’t going to get champion bc I only owned my horse for part of the year. whomp whomp.
The Oldenburg Verband did these plaques for a few years. They were for USDF year end high score and came with brass chains for hanging on stalls or walls.
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You’ll laugh. Yesterday I put on a nameplate on my gelding’s halter – I figure he’s earned a real fancy one after putting up with 9 years of my crap – well, put it on him and his name plate was upside down. Hmmm, who was the dummy that did that?
Me.
Luckily it was chicago screws! Easy fix.
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you are right, made me laugh.
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A local circuit near me is doing this too - if you win a blue ribbon, you can keep it or go over to the prize table and exchange it for a baseball hat, logo tumblr, $20 gift card to the local tack shop, etc.
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Can we just take a minute to appreciate your username in regards to this comment? 
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I did similar with the small shelves I got to hold a brush box on my stalls.
1st one went on, patted myself on the back & did #2…
Only to discover I’d placed it so the sliding stall door couldn’t.
D’OH!
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I use their insulated mug every day!
Another item of theirs I love is a hooded sweatshirt. It is long enough to cover the top of your jeans when you bend down, a nice light material, fitted a bit so not bulky, and good looking with white trim. A+++
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[quote=“equinelibrium, post:132, topic:785607, full:true”]
OMG, I never would have noticed that!! I just laughed hard at that, thank you for pointing it out!
For the record, Looking For Space is a John Denver song. 
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Wow…I would also be trying really hard to win second! A set of good quality blankets is so much more exciting and useful than a belt buckle!
Personally I think the NSBA World Show has some really nice prizes. I covet one of the round rugs/floor mats that the champions all get. At this point I imagine there’s a few barns out there with one in every single room lol.
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Haha, yes my coach was trying to get 2nd place all weekend. I was looking for points to qualify for the world show and I’d never won a belt buckle, so they were exciting to me. After the first one, they lost their luster. Winning several at a single show kinda dilutes the “specialness” of the prize, imo. I still have them in a box at my parent’s house, where they await my return to the AQHA/western world.
I like the idea of an outdoor rug! That’s something that’s always useful, and having several isn’t a bad thing.
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I cleaned up at a dressage schooling show once and all the ribbons were previously used, complete with various show names on the front and the previous winner’s names scrawled on the back. It was one of my first ever dressage shows and I was bummed!
I think the best was when I won a teeny tiny black & white TV at a jumper show. It was just retro hip and I used it for years.
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Most of the prizes I have won are in a pile where their best use is to remind me of the fun I had winning them. I’ve never won a cooler on my horse and would love one! We have won several leather halters which he can’t wear because he breaks them (much to my shame he wears a nylon halter which he doesn’t even try to break-how he can tell the difference is beyond me). I agree with the AQHA regional shows having great prizes. I still have/use the stuff I got years ago!
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Forgive me if I am missing something, but it seems that exchanging a ribbon for a prize would cost the show money. Do the ribbons these days not indicate the show you won at?
