That Ribbon Cost WHAT??

Since the weather isn't my friend right now, I have very little interesting Cowboy news.  I am planning to send in an entry for the CT at Stone Place on March 10th.  Right now we are planning on entering both Beginner Novice AND Novice (gulp!).  While we work towards that, I thought I would post what made me decide to start blogging in the first place.  Hope you enjoy!

I love coming home from an event with a ribbon.  I wait patiently for the 30 minutes to be up so I can pick it up, or I get excited like a 10 year old waiting to go into the ring.  I take a picture of it on my horse, with me holding it and of it hanging from the rear view mirror so I can post it on Facebook.  I plot where I’m going to put my latest treasure when I get home, sometimes for several hours on the long drive.  I walk in the door and my husband (who really is supportive of all my crazy horse adventures) asks “exactly how much did that ribbon cost”?  I can see his point of view.  Anyone could buy a ribbon like that, heck for the cost of one lesson I could buy a MUCH nicer, much bigger, much more colorful ribbon than the now slightly wrinkled 5^th place pink and white thing that looks to me like an amazing treasure.  Since I’m really not a 10 year old anymore, and since I happen to teach Econ at our local college for extra horse money, I started thinking this winter (yes it’s been a LONG winter with way too much time to think!) about what each ribbon really cost.  I quickly decided that adding up the dollars of what they ACTUALLY cost was insanely depressing.  Thankfully Econ took me down a different road.  There it was in bold on the first page of the text, “don’t think in accounting cost (dollars and cents), think in opportunity cost (what you gave up to get what you have).  That really made me think, was the opportunity cost of that pretty pink ribbon anymore appealing that the hundreds (ok thousands, lets be honest) of dollars I spent to get it? 

My first ribbon came at Training level in 2010.  Yea, I skipped a few levels I probably shouldn’t have but the big jumps looked a lot more fun.  I’ll call that my “a little more grown up ribbon”.  When I first started eventing, I didn’t have a trainer or a clue.  I don’t think it was mere coincidence that I got that first ribbon about six months after I started taking lessons.   Lessons meant less time and money for my favorite college past time, bar hopping.  Maybe that first ribbon should have been called “giving up the bar scene”, oh well both titles are probably equally appropriate.

My second ribbon came again at Training level in the spring of 2011.  I had broken my leg in February of that year and we had to run one more clean event to qualify for the T3D in June at IEA.  If I had paid attention to the lesson ribbon #1 taught me I probably would have been in better shape but I regress, I’m still young enough to have a little fun!  My doctor told me not to ride until mid-May and the qualifying event (Greater Dayton) was in mid-May.  Not only did we run around it clean, we also trained with my cast on for 8 weeks and did a schooling show 10 days after I got it off.  Getting ribbon number two meant I gave up the excuse to feel sorry for myself and it meant that for the first time in a long time, I wanted something so badly that I was willing to do anything to get it.  Yea ok, so the real opportunity cost was that I could have injured myself pretty badly but I’m sure all you fellow eventers know that it was a very small price to pay!

My third (and most treasured) ribbon came at the T3D (just two months after I got my cast off!) when we finished on our dressage score to be the highest placed amateur in the event.  I can’t even describe the feeling when our number was called.  Yea it’s a fairly small white (4^th place overall) ribbon.  And yea, I spent thousands of dollars on it.  But I can honestly say I’ve never been more proud of myself, my horse, or my family who supported me to get there.  What did this ribbon “cost” me?  A whole heck of a lot actually.  I realized at that event that I didn’t want to be an amateur forever, I wanted to do this and I wanted to be really good at it.  What did I get in return?  A brown Dirt Cowboy who has taught me so many things I'm most likely too stubborn to have learned any other way.

My fourth ribbon didn’t come at an event.  It came in the mail.  I was down in the dumps.  My beautiful Romeo who helped me earn above ribbons was injured and in the stall.  I had realized that he was a stepping stone to where I wanted to be and that after he got better, I would be moving on.  The ribbon that came in the mail was a (HUGE) 3^rd place ribbon for Training Amateur Rider in Area 8 (yea you get a lot of points for a T3D!).  That ribbon taught me to appreciate what you have and not to be afraid to dream big.  It was the end of a great chapter with my gray guy.

My next ribbon is still out there.  I spent last show season trying to learn how to ride Cowboy.  However, I already know what my next ribbon cost me.  When we get the ribbon it will mean that I’m a heck of a lot better rider than I was when I won my last one.  See Romeo was pretty easy and straight forward; my bay baby is anything but.  I’ve given up making the same mistake twice (ok five times), I’ve given up just getting by with my right rein half halts; I’ve given up being happy with being a decent rider.   

There are some things in life that money can’t buy, we all know that.  And while money could buy me a truck load (literally a truck load at this point I’m sure) of ribbons, they would be very little in comparison to the small collection I have going now.