I would like to respond to the messages that have
been posted regarding the awards at the Gold Country Ride. I am the ride
manager and would like to give "our side of the story". First of all, as
has been mentioned, our "completion awards" are participation awards and are
given out when the rider picks up his or her ride packet on Friday. We
have done this for the past few years with EVERYONE liking it. At the ride
meeting on Friday, I gave a short talk on why we do this and the entire crowd
applauded the idea. We feel that everyone who has paid their money to come
to the ride, driven long distances to get there, and has put their heart and
soul into coming to our ride deserves to get something for that. If they
have some bad luck the day of the ride and do not complete, they should not have
to walk away with nothing. What about the junior who is riding his or her
first ride and gets pulled because the horse took a bad step. That is
devastating for that person. If they have their participation award, they
still have something to remember their first ride by. From a management
standpoint, it is a nightmare to have to give out "completion" awards at the end
of the ride. In the old days, most people stayed for the awards ceremony,
but that just does not happen anymore. We used to have the best awards
show ever. Two of our funniest and most personable husbands used to run
the "Pete and Jim show" and made it fun for everyone. Over the years,
however, fewer and fewer people showed up and we decided a few years ago not to
do it anymore. Then you have the nightmare of giving out the completion
awards early and keeping track of who got theres and who didn't. And then
we required the rider to bring over some evidence that they had completed the
ride (because the results were not published that early). And then their
was the issue of sending awards out. I disagree that it is up to the rider
to pick up their award. They all need to get it and it is up to management
to make sure they do. So, giving participation awards solves all these
issues. We also send EVERYONE a packet a week after the ride that has the
statistics of the ride, who finished and who did not, what place they came in
(except the 30 mile ride which is reported in alphabetical order), and their
rider vet card. This means they do not have to stay until the awards
ceremony at 7:00 to listen to 100 names and where they came in. For the
last few years, the "special" awards that we have given out has been done at the
end of the day (around 7:00) when everyone has finished. There is no one
there by that time! Most people have gotten tired hanging around and have
picked up their awards earlier. Even the top ten 50 milers have left and
we have to mail out the best condition blanket. It was so anticlimatic!
So-o-o, for all these reasons, we decided to do our awards ceremony at
4:30 so that we would have an audience to be there. And, in my opinion, it
worked great! Our "special" awards are: fastest time, best condition for
the 50s, weight division buckles, first junior, tail end, and horse excellence
for the 30s. For the exception of first junior and tail end, all the
people were there. We probably had 60 people at the ceremony. The
winner of the ride had her birthday that day which made it extra
special.
So, in closing, everyone has to do what works best
for them, but I can tell you, I thought this worked great for us.
