I do to. It's just that I don't see how parents with more then one child can afford it. IMO, it might be better to give something less expensive as the year end award then saddles.With all the age groups they have, and all the events it adds up to alot of saddles. Belt buckles would be less expensive, and just as good a keepsake as the saddles. I mean how many saddles can you set in your livingroom:)
I also wish they had some sort of rule that the horses the kids ride had to be trained by them, but there would be no way to monitor that. So many of these kids get on their parents professionally trained horses (which very few can afford) to compete. But then, if frogs had wings they wouldn't bump their butts everytime they jumped either:)
Becky
I guess one of the things I like about halter and shoemanship classes is that aside from the horse's confirmation, much rides on how well that horse is cleaned up and in shape - lots of exercise, shampooing, mane pulling, tack polishing involved there. I do hate to see parents buying a win so to speak but there isn't nearly as much of that at the local horseman's associations. You see it a lot more at the breed shows but we don't go to many of those - and that's one of the reasons. No sense paying lots of money to compete against a big name trainer.