July 09' LETTER OF THE MONTH As your everyday rider who goes out to compete for the fun of it and comes home elated by winning a rosette or two, I feel the need to write this after my balloon was somewhat burst after receiving, at a recent competition, a pathetic rosette that looked like it could have only come out of the Two Dollar Shop! Or as a friend said, “Did they make it themselves?” When you do this sport for the love of it – even though we find great excuses for the husband to buy that new rug and write the cheque for the shoeing bill – there is nothing better than coming home after a successful competition waving a fancy rosette and, better still, prize money under said husband’s nose. If you are like me and take pride in displaying the rosettes that you win, and even if it is only a fifth place... that fancy rosette is everything! Fair play to you at the Waikato Equestrian Centre – your rosettes for the Kaurilands Series are stunning; my fifth place is at the top of the pile. And fair play to the Thames Valley Adult Riding Club – your sashes are gorgeous! But the following weekend at a newly-established equestrian centre, I was delighted after another successful dressage test until I was handed what can only be described as a Two Dollar Shop rosette, and, to make it worse, no prize money as there were not enough entries. I wonder if receiving rosettes like these is what has stopped people coming back and thus why entries are small! It is not only this equestrian centre that presents the budget rosettes; other clubs and groups could do with letting the moths out of their wallets a bit more. We pay good money to enter these events and sometimes travel a good distance. We know the prize money on offer will never cover the cost of running our four-legged friends (our husbands remind us of this every day), but at least make your rosettes something to be proud of, and attract more riders. Come on people, we are not asking for champion rosettes but don’t dish out the $2 jobs! Present your winners with something that we can take pride in showing off! Deflated Dressage Rider, Hamilton