The Mudslingers Excellence Awards Program is for Mudslingers members who want to challenge themselves and earn special awards based on their individual achievements throughout the season. 

It's a great way to mark your progress, celebrate your personal successes and strengthen the facets of yourself that help you excel as a rider--no matter where you place within your division!

How It Works
The Prizes
The Patterns
Award Requirements
Tracking Your Progress
Fees & Transfers
Sign Up for the Excellence Awards!
Payment

1. Choose Your Challenge: We offer three levels of award, each named after a precious gemstone (more info below):

   • Citrine Achievement: A great accomplishment, recognizing consistent performance.

   • Sapphire Excellence: Steps up the challenge, rewarding dedication and skill.

   • Diamond Mastery: The ultimate goal, showcasing exceptional commitment and achievement.

2. Sign Up & Pay: Register for the program and pay the fee for your chosen award level. If you’re riding multiple horses, please pay for each rider/horse pair. 

3. Ride & Track Your Times: Compete in our shows and keep track of your times throughout the season. We'll also be tracking your times, which will appear on your end-of-show pink sheets.

4. Achieve Your Goal: Each award level has specific requirements based on the number of qualifying times you achieve in different gymkhana events. (See the chart below for details.)

5. Claim Your Prize! We'll notify you if you've met the requirements at the end of the season. You'll even get to personalize your award! Pick it up at our year-end banquet or have it shipped to you. We’ll also feature your achievement in our yearbook.

The prizes are as follows (all prizes are customized for the rider, including size, tooling, engraving and/or embroidery):

Citrine Level: Choice of Belt Buckle OR Tooled Leather Belt ($100)

Sapphire Level: Choice of Jacket OR Stirrups ($135)

Diamond Level: Choice of ONE Citrine Level and ONE Sapphire Level prize ($215)

Mudslingers run 13 events in which a rider can be placed into a time division. The events are as follows:

Barrels, Big T, Birangle, Figure 8 Flags, Figure 8 Stake, Hurry Scurry, Keyhole, Poles 1, Poles 2, Quadrangle, Single Stake, Speed Ball, and Speed Barrels.

Below are the requirements to receive an award in each division.

Notes:

• • • The above chart is based on a season of 12 scheduled shows. If a show is rained out or canceled due to weather, for example, we will reduce the qualification numbers for # of TIMES by a correlating percentage and then round up or down. For example, if we end up hosting 8 shows, we would have canceled 33% of the season’s shows and would reduce the Citrine qualification to 2 Times per pattern and the Sapphire/Diamond to 3 Times per pattern.
    • Times earned in divisions higher than your target or “goal” division count toward your achievement.
    • At this time we do not offer Excellence Awards for AAA+ or Pony divisions.
    • Riders can request a set-up at any show to expand the number of opportunities they have to achieve their Excellence Award. 

Citrine Level Awards

To receive your Citrine award, you must receive 3 times in any pattern before you can count that pattern toward your # of Patterns qualification.

For example, if you earn 3 AA times in Big T, you can count Big T as one of the 8. patterns you need to fulfill the requirement.

Sapphire & Diamond Level Awards

To receive Sapphire or Diamond award levels by the end of the season, you must receive 4 times in a pattern to count that pattern toward your # of Patterns qualification.

For example, if you earn 4 FC times in Barrels, you can count Barrels as one of 6 patterns you need to fulfill your FC Sapphire- or Diamond-level requirement. 

• Pink Sheets: After each show, you'll receive a pink sheet with your times. Use this to track your progress toward your chosen award level.
• Worksheet: You can download a worksheet here to help you track your qualifying times and patterns.
• Contact a Board Member: Need clarification on your standing? Reach out to a board member anytime during the season.

• Non-Refundable: Award fees are non-refundable. We debated making the fees refundable if a rider did not achieve their award given the Mudslingers is a non-profit organization and we don’t want to “profit” off of a rider not meeting their goal. However, we felt that making the fees refundable disincentivizes riders from giving 100% toward a higher level of achievement. Therefore, we're making fees non-refundable (though in some circumstances fees can be transferred and times combined, see below). All fees that do not earn awards will be placed in the Mudslingers general fund for items such as show prizes, year-end prizes and arena fees.
• Transfer Options: 
  • If you need to switch horses due to an injury, you can transfer your fees and combine times earned on different horses.
    • Vet Note Required: A written vet note is mandatory for injury-related transfers.
  • If you choose to switch horses due another reason, for example opting to ride another horse due to personal preference, you can transfer your fees but you cannot combine your times.
• Deadline: All transfer requests must be submitted to a board member before you switch mounts.