What do you think about Hunter Trial prizes

[wellwisher]

Entered a really well run HT at the weekend - great venue, beautiful ground, fab course with BE fences and properly designed.

It was my daughters first Hunter Trial and it went brilliantly with two fantastic clears so we were all over the moon as went better than we could have ever dreamed.

Now to my query.....

Each class was £18 to enter. She was second in her first class, 2seconds over the optimum time and got a lovely rosette. In the next class was 5 seconds over the optimum time to be equal 5th...but no rosette as several people on same time.

It did not spoil the day at all but seems quite frugal when paying top level entry fees to not have rosettes below 4th and not even a token gesture prize in kind for any of the winners.

Is this normal or a sign of the times? As I say, we were delighted anyway as young pony and 11yr old daughter to be placed in open under 16 is fab but seems quite harsh on those that do well.
What do you think??

 

[blackislegirl]

Well done, your daughter - and I agree, it was very mean of the organisers not have rosettes for equal 5th placings. In my area HT classes are very full and anyone in the top 10 has done really, really well.

 

[wench]

Well if they only had one 5th place rosette per class they wouldnt be able to give them out would they?

 

[TheoryX1]

Well done first of all, she did really, really well. Seems a bit mean, but it cant beat the BD venue my daughter competed at that only gave rossettes to 3rd place. She came equal third in a prelim and because she turned up to claim her prize later than the other person, she did not get a rossette. The venue did not apologise, and I had one peed off teenager. Coupled with the fact that we were shouted at by the owner when we arrived at daring to park my 4 x 4 and trailer with the lorries and even worse, allowing my daughters horse to walk along a concrete walkway that was reserved for people to walk on, we wont be going back. Oh yes, those of you in the South West/Wilts/Glos area will know exacty where this is.

 

[wellwisher]

Wench - totally agree but if timing is done in whole seconds and with an optimum time, it is very likely there will be several joint places, especially as the optimum time was advertised

 

[wellwisher]

Theory - that sounds horrendous. The perfect example of how not to run an event :-( I have to say we had great day, but with approx 50 people per class, it was a problem in several classes

I guess thats the downside of optimum times!!

 

[posie_honey]

round here you dont generally get prizes for HT's although Gleneagles is good and does give some out. If you get joint placings the organisers generally take a name and address and send out additional rosettes
optimum time advertised should not make any difference really - its kinda guess work (unless someone is able to count really well whilst riding the course ) stop watches are not generally allowed - certainly not at any HT's i know up to 3'6 round here

 

[wellwisher]

That makes sense! Thank you....counting sounds far too technical, think daughter was finding counting fences a big enough challenge!!

 

[posie_honey]

also - lucky you for such low entry fees!! it cost me £20 last weekend and £30 this weekend for our local HT's - i actually thought the £20 one was nice and cheap for a change!

 

[wellwisher]

Blimey, I sputtered at £18 each class! Will be very pleased hunting is still her first choice and suddenly the silly early starts for Autumn hunting seem a small price to pay!!

 

[LizzieJ]

The thing is, if you say have three people in equal first then the next awarded prize is 4th so if there were some tied above her she wouldn't technically have been 5th. If rosettes only went to 4th though, that does seem a little mean! Congratulations to daughter and pony though

Round here they still go on the fastest time section, I've never done a hunter trial to an optimum time! This year our hunt is including all sorts of 'obstacles' typically met in the hunting field so it will be much more like they we when I was a kid rather than essentially a BE xc course (it's been run round a BE course but with added gates, slip rails, bridges etc). I do agree that prize money for everything has reduced over the years but the cost of putting anything on is also much higher now.

 

[ldlp111]

This year our hunt is including all sorts of 'obstacles' typically met in the hunting field so it will be much more like they we when I was a kid rather than essentially a BE xc course (it's been run round a BE course but with added gates, slip rails, bridges etc). I do agree that prize money for everything has reduced over the years but the cost of putting anything on is also much higher now.

Please tell me this isn't the one coming up at west buckland?

 

[ester]

LJ I've done a few optimum times in the last few years in somerset

In general.. for unaffiliated HT round here give the best prizes! Can't get money anywhere else

 

[PrillyD]

I wish HT around here were £18; Last one was £25 (rossies to 6th) and the one before £28 (rossies to 10th and prizes for 1-3)
When i've been joint placed, they've always had several rossies for that position x

 

[suzi]

I wish HT around here were £18; Last one was £25 (rossies to 6th) and the one before £28 (rossies to 10th and prizes for 1-3)
When i've been joint placed, they've always had several rossies for that position x

This ^^^^^

The one I did at the weekend was £27 and the one I hope to do in 2 weeks time is at least that...

 

[Nicnac]

£18 is the norm here for real hunter trials i.e. organised by the Hunt (South East) and £25 for pairs. Never had a prize and rosettes are hit and miss. This is mainly due to the 'cr*p' timing i.e. you get held up at a fence and no-one removes those seconds from your time as FJ's don't tend to have stopwatches or are so busy picking up whoever has fallen off, they don't click you in and out from their timing point.

I don't care - it's all good fun and raises money for the hunt

Local riding club Hunter Trials do give pretty good prizes though and rosettes down to 10th, however the one this weekend is £24 to enter the 2'6-2'9" course.

 

[BarmyC]

I entered a local HT on Sunday and it cost me nearly £40 for a pairs class this was before first aid and a compulsory bib deposit dispite me having my own.

I could have fainted when i went to pay!

The classes were placed up to 6th. The frillies werent very nice at all either. In the schedule it was said that all classes were to run to bogey time so when the results of ours came out they said it was a fastest time. (we took it steady to get the bogey time) We did come 6th.

Another thing i noticed was that the number of fences were the same in each class but the price of the classes went up as you went up in height. How is this fair??

 

[monkeybum13]

Well done first of all, she did really, really well. Seems a bit mean, but it cant beat the BD venue my daughter competed at that only gave rossettes to 3rd place. She came equal third in a prelim and because she turned up to claim her prize later than the other person, she did not get a rossette. The venue did not apologise, and I had one peed off teenager. Coupled with the fact that we were shouted at by the owner when we arrived at daring to park my 4 x 4 and trailer with the lorries and even worse, allowing my daughters horse to walk along a concrete walkway that was reserved for people to walk on, we wont be going back. Oh yes, those of you in the South West/Wilts/Glos area will know exacty where this is.

There are plenty of other worse venues in the area, some places only give rosettes to 1st, all depending on the number of entries.

 

[wellwisher]

Thank you all and interesting seeing how much we are prepared to for a bit of entertinment!