Adventures in Saddle Seat
You call that a ribbon? Three short streamers and a narrow, single rosette with the world’s most lifeless ruffle? I’ll give them the customized button, that’s cool. Different buttons give a nice variety to a ribbon display over time. The sticky-out white streamer has the name of the show. Too little, too late.
This barely rates for a backyard, in-barn gymkhana. Such a poor show of acetate is particularly appalling for eventing, which only has to invest in one ribbon per competitor per weekend.
For this I am giving up the glorious, epic loot fest that is saddle seat?! I may need to rethink my priorities.
But Seriously Folks
All snarking aside, Intrépide and Sheila Palmer placed third in their move-up to Beginner Novice. Completing all three phases of an event is always an accomplishment to be proud of. At any level, to finish is to win. Ribbons are a lovely bonus. Show Horse, Sport Horse: Sidetrack – Meet Lacy Show Horse, Sport Horse: Moving On Up.
Congratulations, Sheila & Lacy.
Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott
Virtual Brush Box 
Considering all the times we came home empty-handed, I was always happy with any ribbon. And as for eventing, well, until you taught Priney about cross-country jumping, we often lost – as in not finishing. *sob* So just finishing was for me a win. I was always my own biggest competition.
Pretty ribbons are lovely but if you’re riding for the ribbon, do you ride well?
Don’t you have to ride well to win the ribbon?
Absolutely true! The comically tiny ribbon was appropriate for what I felt I deserved; it said “You placed third, but barely.” It was a baaaaad stadium round. But could you imagine the people in the higher-up classes? Like, what if someone had moved up to prelim, won their class and was handed a tiny, Barbie-sized blue ribbon? Anyone in prelim and up should be recieving solid gold trophies just for surviving that kind of badassery. A future move up to novice is already causing me a few heart palpitations!
You should see the ones from my local county fair. Microscopic, but I was always glad to get one. Will be scanning some pix into my blog (debandtoby.wordpress.com) soon. Single strips, hardly any info. They may have changed by now, I last competed in the ’80s.
“… riding for the ribbon …” A good question. Will probably need a blog post to answer.
” A future move up to novice ..” Back in my day – whacks ground with cane – Novice, then called Pretraining, was the lowest it got. Jump 2’11” or stay home.
It was baby novice, 2’3″, when I started. And that’s as far as I ever got. Oh well, I enjoyed it while I was able to, and that’s the important thing, isn’t it? Although starting at amoeba or tadpole would have been nice….