This years National Saddlery Competition took place in February 2019.
Organised by the Society of Master Saddlers it takes place every year at Saddlers Hall in London and is one of the main events of the year.
My Entries
This year, I entered four separate items into the following class categories:
- 2b – Level 3 In-hand Stallion Bridle
- 3a – Level 2 Trainee Saddle
- 5 – Special Open Class – Dressage Stirrup Leathers
- 13 – The President’s Choice
Beta International
One of the category’s, ‘The President’s Choice’, was displayed at BETA International during the 19th – 21st January 2019, to allow the public to vote their favourite.
Can you spot mine amongst the other fantastic box work displayed?
London Bound
On Monday 4th February, my husband and I embarked on our 3.5-hour car journey down to London.
We got there, had a meander around, and looked at all the entries including mine.
There was some stunning work completed by trainee’s, qualified and Master Saddlers.
Prize Winners
The prize winners were distinguished by a brown tag that hung from their item and said ‘Prize Winner’.
However, we didn’t know what prize it had won until the presentation later on that evening.
Sadly, none of my entries had a ‘prize winner’ label on them, but the two trainee entries (class 2b and class 3a) had a feedback form which proved to be really useful.
Food and Drink
Once the presentation is done, photographs of the prize winners are taken whilst the rest of us get a drink, or two; all free, of course, which is a bonus.
Once all the
In my opnion, this is the next best thing to winning a prize because the food provided is wonderful.
“Note to self ‘Must take a picture of the buffet next time'”
The rest of the evening was spent catching up with Mentors, Masters and all other fellow Saddlers.
Such an enjoyable experience and one I intend to enter again and again.
Just got to wait for the Society of Masters Saddlers to issue the 2020 competition schedule now.
