Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Hunter Princess Blog Hop - An Annoying H/J Trend.

Having just completed my first show season, I am new enough to Hunter Land that I am not too annoyed by anything just yet, nor am I "in the know" enough about the trends, as I stuck to very classic hunter turnout. Sure, I wish the shows would always base the striding on a 12' stride (sometimes they've used 11.5'). But I know they do that to be "kind" to our greenies (I showed Green Hunter this year), so it's not really annoying.

I do find poor sportsmanship annoying, but that certainly isn't the exclusive domain of hunter/jumpers!

One thing I do find  annoying, and I will admit it's rather petty, is the trend around here to have nameplates on everything.

Now don't get me wrong, when I bought Armani last year, one of my biggest little-girl thrills was getting him a halter name plate. I was actually almost disappointed (although very appreciative) when my friend bought me one as a Christmas present. I just wanted to pick it for myself and hers wasn't what I would have chosen. So I got an "everyday" leather halter and a nameplate of my choosing. Gotta fulfill the dream, you know.

From haltertags.com. I highly recommend
these tags - excellent quality and they do 
custom work such as name plate size.

When I bought my first new saddle the year before, I was thrilled to have my own nameplate on it. However, that is as far as I go with plating my tack. I certainly have had the urge to put name plates on everything, especially when I thought I lost my $250 girth...but I have refrained. I figure if someone wanted to steal the girth they would simply remove the plate. Although it also means that a good samaritan wouldn't know who to try to track down. Hmm.

I've seen hunters at shows with name plates on their bridle, girth, standing martingale, and saddle.

Admittedly, I stole these from the internet at large.
I don't have any creepy stalker photos of fellow competitors' name plate excess.


I find it a little much. Mostly, I find it distracting, much like the extra bling that Lauren mentions in her original post. Perhaps also a little too...I don't know, self-important?

What do you think? Do you like having plates on some tack and not others?  All of it? Has it ever served a practical purpose or is it all mostly just the same sense of pride you get from your first halter or saddle plate?

8 comments:

2LeftSocks said...

I've shown at a riding school barn where they had a tack room of over 50 sets of tack. Well organized, with bridles hooks and saddle racks to match. And almost every one was the same brand (bridles, saddles, etc). But they hung the girths all together and the martingales. I could see in this case, having names on everything would keep the right tack with the right horse or owner.

I personally only have a plate on my horse's show halter and that only has his show name on it. I don't have a need to tag my stuff, we have personal lockers. I've had some saddles with plates, only because they already had holes and a plate is better then holes ;)

I do have a leather bracelet with my horse's name on it :D

Amy @ Diary of a Horse Obsessed Girl said...

I did when I boarded or paid for day care at the shows. It was the only way to ensure my stuff stayed with me. I also did not have a good experience with haltertags.com

Gingham said...

Haha, I JUST tagged everything! Bridles got full plates with the horse name but girths and martingales just got little round brass tags (the girth ones are hidden) with my initials...

I love a nice bridle plate, but I'll agree that full name plates on girths and martingales (also.. hard to attach) can start to be overkill. Why stop there? why not your boots? and your horse's boots! and your bit!

RuckusButt said...

Lol! Well, as I said, I've certainly been tempted to do the same!

Good points about simply keeping your belongings identifiable. I hadn't thought of it potentially being an issue at the barn and my show groom is almost always my husband so keeping my things straight is his job ;-)

Gingham, we need pictures! If anyone is going to make this look good and tasteful it's you! I like the idea of the bridle plate having the horse's name - around here it seems to be more the owner's full name which can get long and cluttered looking imo.

Now I'm oddly tempted to plate random weird stuff just to be funny. Up next...embroidery.

L.Williams said...

Found you through the hop! I actually really like tagging everything because everything walks away even when they are tagged grr!

Lauren @ She Moved To Texas said...

Popeye K! I love Popeye K and everything that spawns from him :)

I'm with you on the name plates. I don't have any besides Simon's boring halter nameplate (which says "Simon") but that may be because I'm cheap. I also think it's bad luck to put nameplates on stuff, so I will usually just do my name and not my horse's name.

RuckusButt said...

Welcome L.Williams! Yeah, I'm realizing others have more issues than I do at keeping their tack identified. I'm feeling pretty lucky about that :-)

Hi Lauren! Yes, Popeye K is pretty special and throws niiice babies. Armani's sire, Apiro, is quite the stud as well, very nice babies especially with WB mares (I'm not quite as fond of the TB crosses although they are still very nice).

The Pony Post Grad said...

I am with Amy and L, I love plating! But then in my everyday life I will Monogram anything that is not moving! Also when you spend $500+ for a bridle or $200+ for a girth you don't want people thinking they can "borrow" it.