Equestrian Trophies/Plaques In Progress (Finished w/Updated Photos 11/15/13)

[John Morris]

I volunteered to build some plaques/trophies for my youngest daughter's horse club she belongs too. She has been taking riding lessons since before summer and her instructor fired up a wonderful club for the youth of the valley and adult riders as well. We have a club event coming up next Saturday and the trophies are to be presented to the top riders in their divisions and class. We wanted to keep them simple, yet elegant. So I grabbed slab stock I had in my shop from other jobs leftovers, and commenced to free styling some work, off the top of my head, and working with what I had on hand.

 

I also received some valuable feedback from one of the mothers of the club who stated that she had way to many wall plaques from previous sporting events, and that one more plaque she could do without, so keeping that in mind, I went ahead and made them so they can stand on a coffee table, or a shelf, or heck, they could even become book ends!!!

 

 

I had some Walnut left over from one of my rockers I built, and some California Live Oak as well. I cut them out in blocks, leaving the thickness intact, and keeping any imperfections or cracks in place as well. I then hand sculpted the edges and then sanded them all down to 800, then a coat of Boiled Linseed Oil to finish them off.

 

 

The first image below is one of the plaques with a horses head medallion laying where it should go, below that will be the name plate with the event engraved and the bottom of the trophies will be lined with felt. This was fun, and I was so glad to be able to help out a great group of horse people in our local community.

 

 

 

 

I made a total of ten, 5 for overall champion in each age division, and 5 for reserve champion in each age division. No two are alike, each one is original and unique, as are the riders who will receive them.

 

 

 

 

It was really quit surprising how long these took to make!!!! Sanding them all to such a fine grit and getting all the nooks and cranny's in the sculpted edges took a day alone. But it was fun, and for a great cause!

 

 

Here is my girl at her last event with our club. She is getting ready to enter the arena for her Gymkhana timed event.

 

 

 

 

Here is mama and our daughter with awards in hand for her efforts. They were all so proud and all the younguns did so wonderful.

 

 

 

 

I will head on down to our local trophy store where I placed the order for the engravings this coming Thursday to pick them up, and once I get everything mounted on the trophies I'll post back here for some final images! Thanks for following along Patriot Woodworker's!

 

 

UPDATE Photos (11/15/2013)

 

 

I delivered the trophies today to the club and they loved them. I am very happy with the trophy company's work on the plates too, it is first rate work and the customer service is awesome. If anyone here lives in the IE Riverside CA, you really need to look up Anady's Trophies and do business with them, one step into the front of their shop and you know you are in good hands and the place reeks of quality work. Thank you Anady's!

 

 

So here is our finished product!

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking folks, now the big catch is, my equestrian daughter is out of commission for the next couple weeks! She has been down with a wounded knee for the last two weeks and she cannot have an activity on it for another few till after Thanksgiving. So she'll miss the debut of her dad's trophies with the club.

 

 

[Harry Brink]

Very good John! I know everybody will love them.

[Cliff]

nice~!!

The kids'll love 'em.

 

[John Morris]

Thanks guys, I just updated the pics and they really turned out nice! Thanks for your kind comments!

[John Morris]

Moving another plaque topic out of archive status, just having fun remembering these little guys.