Year End Award?

My invite came in the mail today for the USHJA Awards dinner, which I think happens sometime in between arguing about rule changes and drinking too much cheap zinfandel at the annual meeting...

My first response was "WHEEEEE Award!! More SATIN!!!"

Followed by my second response of "There is no god damn way I'm spending "horse show money" on a trip to Atlanta to collect a ribbon without my horse."

I'm sure that Atlanta is super fun and super convenient for.... someone, but for us all the way out here in Zone 9, I'm thinking no.  I did wave the invite in The Boy's face briefly just to remind him how worthwhile spending all of our money and time on coercing Prairie around the Hunter Ring has been.

He seemed less than impressed that the however-many-thousands-of-dollars (let's not count, shall we?) spent on entries and training and hotels and everything else managed to snag us an invite to what I'm sure is a less than mind-blowing buffet dinner 3,000 miles away in the national capital of hip-hop.

So as I checked the "politely declines" box on the RSVP card, I started thinking about what's behind year end awards (especially the "second tier" type ones we got) that is still so exciting?

In no way was "win year-end satin" part of my goals for this year with Prairie, or even really something I thought was an option.  It didn't drive my entries, or add additional shows, didn't affect my decision to bop around in different divisions collecting random points in random things, it just wasn't on my mind.

That is... until it was. 

I got an email stating that we were "top contenders" for something and then all the sudden I was stalking the USHJA website like a crazy person after every show looking at point totals and standings.

So I suppose if nothing else, being "in the hunt" for a year end award had me visiting the website and poking around a bit more.. I paid slightly more attention to emails from the organization and actually followed some links about proposed rule changes and whatnot. 

I guess increased involvement and awareness is exactly what our governing bodies are looking for - and it seems that they've finally figured out the quickest way to our collective hearts (or at least mine), is through bribery.

Ergo, the exponential increase of year end awards across all disciplines...

• Adult Amateur riding an unregistered horse that is over 10 but with less than two years of showing...
• Non-Thoroughbred Working Bay Hunter with less than two white markings shown by a first year pro
• HOTY for the best US bred Hanoverian competing in both Dressage and Jumping disciplines in more than two states but less than five....

I'm not complaining though.  I will gladly add yards to my future Ribbon Quilt and I will gladly accept any accolades for what really was a pretty successful first full season out...

And I must say, finding a way to feed the ribbon addicts in the off season is very clever indeed...