Over all my years riding, I have won 7 ribbons I believe. Endurance isn’t big into the ribbon scene. When you complete a ride they give you a hat or a water bucket or a bag or a flashlight or a t shirt or a ride photo. Pretty much anything but a ribbon. Not including those non ribbon awards, I can think of two that really stand out: my year end hunter pace 6th place ribbon for 2015-2016 season and the 4th place I got at my first CT this past June.
Of those, I think the hunter pace award is my favorite.
What makes this 6th place ribbon mean so much is the work that went into getting it. The 2015-2016 Hunter Pace season had rides scheduled every other week from August to May with a two week break for the holidays. That was a lot of rides to attend. Compare that to this season where several rides have bailed out and I believe there are 6 fewer rides on the schedule than in 2015.
Each ride is based on the secret optimum time and I was really stoked to get in the top 5 multiple times. Finishing the ride gets you 2 points, but top 5 gets extra points that really help boost you in the rankings. I had hoped to make it to every single ride that season and win the coveted framed professional photograph, but I missed the last three due to timing with the Biltmore 100 mile endurance race I did that May.
In fact, I didn’t even bother going to the year end gathering (I believe it was at Biltmore that year, but i could be wrong) because I figured I was out of the running by that point. Low and behold I found out I placed 6th out of over 150 riders!!! I was so excited!!!
So many weekends were dedicated to hunter paces, so much effort went in to trying to maintain a good pace and make that elusive time and a lot of arguments on pacing occurred out on those trails. Wyatt was a ride camp staple that year with his dump trucks and diggers playing in the mud and arenas. It was a fun season and one I hope to repeat again someday hopefully with a built in little trail buddy on his Wyatt sized pony. Maybe next season?
The Roaming Rider 
Wow, that’s a great ribbon out of soooo many riders!! :-O Even though I love ribbons haha, I do think endurance has it right when they award Useful Things instead of scraps of fabric.
LikeLike
It’s a great ribbon 🙂
LikeLike
Placing 6th out of so many is an amazing achievement. Well done!
LikeLike
It was a fun ribbon to win
LikeLike
wow that is great. I used to love our year end ribbons the best when i was a kid they were cumulative so they were A) HUGE ass ribbons and usually against a lot of horses if you got one B) You were stoked! HA
LikeLike
It’s a ribbon I debated actually keeping. Then I cleaned out the trailer and threw it away
LikeLiked by 1 person
You are my hero for winning the 6th place overall ribbon!!! That’s been one of my goals since I moved to the area to get a year end ribbon for the hunter pace series 🙂
LikeLike
That season I made it to all but 3 of the paces which really helped out. Some day I’ll tackle it again
LikeLike
ha i still can’t believe you throw the ribbons out. i’m so sentimental and sappy about that stuff, even tho they just end up floating around the trunk of my car getting all wrinkled and stained…
LikeLike
I keep them around for a few weeks and then they get trashed 🙂 makes my local friends crazy
LikeLike
One of the endurance rides I went to was giving out ribbons to the juniors. And they were really cool tie-dye ribbons too and I was like, but I want a ribbon instead of an adult prize.
And omg, you throw your ribbons away! Why! Why! You can craft with those!
LikeLike
If I ever hosted an endurance ride I’d give out the medallions like for a marathon. I always thought those would be cool
LikeLike
Yes!
LikeLike