Fifth Place

I wrote about my 2012 horse show adventures a few times in my blog posts, focusing on the idea that winning when you felt you didn't perform as well as your competition feels worse than not winning when you think you and your horse did really well.  I mentioned that because both my veteran show horse and my young horse, in his first show, won nothing but first and second place ribbons and always won Reserve or Grand Champion ribbons for their division at almost every show. I didn't think any of us were that great, and the competition was pretty good. I won't say it wasn't nice to win, but the enjoyment was lessened because it felt undeserved.
     At the last show of the year, both my horses won only fourth and fifth place ribbons in all our classes; which was interesting, because I felt we performed as well as (or not any worse than) we did at the first four shows of the season (with the exception of one jumping class where my mare - who never spooks - was startled by some crazed wildlife in the field next to the ring and went off course; I am certain we would have placed first or second in that class). Really, fourth or fifth is about where I would have placed us in most of our classes throughout the season.
      While placing where I felt we deserved did feel more right than winning when I didn't feel we should have, I was still - only very slightly - disappointed. I was surprised to feel that way. Having never had a show season go quite like this, I had never been able to juxtapose the two situations. A small part of me thought, "Well, as long as we are going to perform consistently under par, isn't it better to place higher?"
     In my past blogs on the subject, my point had been that it was better to write well and be unappreciated than to write poorly and have your work praised and/or published. Maybe it has something to do with getting older, but now I'm thinking that even if I write mediocre stories or books, isn't it better to have success with getting them published or appreciated by others rather than ignored? It certainly would be nice to earn money from work, even if it is not as good as I would like.
     I may have to revisit the question posed by one of my writer friends: Would you rather become rich and famous for writing crap that is commercial success, or write great works that are less popular or lucrative?


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