Trail Awards

💡

Quick Navigation

⭐ The Trail Awards – new and improved! ⭐
More fab awards!
🎁 What You Get
🎁 A bonus for existing participants!
🏆 Additional 1,000 hours award!
🎉 Additional 40th Anniversary 500 miles award!
❗New rules on tack!
🔎 A new in-hand element!
⚠️ A focus on safety
🏆 Sign up for the trail awards

⭐ The Trail Awards – new and improved! ⭐

We are delighted to announce a new structure for the Trail Awards being implemented with immediate effect, having considered the feedback from our member engagement survey and including our special 40th Anniversary 500 miles scheme!!

More fab awards!

With a focus on safety on the trails for horse and rider, we have added more milestones and more awards, with no increase to the current one-off £40 sign up fee.

Participants will still need to be a member of WES for the duration of their Trail Awards

🎁 What You Get

On signing up: hi-viz tabard sponsored by Western Tack Trader

50 hours: certificate and first aid kit sponsored by Pauline Norton
100 hours: SOS saddle tag sponsored by Garrabeg Western Horsemanship
250 hours: special rosette and water bottle sponsored by LR Western Horses
350 hours: WES branded softshell jacket
500 hours: inscribed silver belt buckle supplied by Montana Silversmiths sponsored by Cowgirl Like Me Media

🎁 A bonus for existing participants!

Existing participants will receive a hi-viz tabard, no matter where on their Trail Awards journey they are.

🏆 Additional 1,000 hours award!

Anyone who has already completed a 500 hour Trail Award can, at any time, pay a one-off signup fee of £25 to enter our new 1,000 hours challenge.

Participants record hours annually and remain a member of WES for the duration of the challenge
On achieving 1,000 hours, you are awarded a WES branded Clique Idaho Jacket, with your name/your horse’s name and 1,000 hours included in the brand.

🎉 Additional 40th Anniversary 500 miles award!

To mark WES’s 40th Anniversary, we are excited to offer ten participants a one-off 500 miles scheme!

Open to any member of WES, whether or not you have completed, or are currently working towards, any of the other Trail Award schemes.
A one-off sign up fee of £40, half of which goes to World Horse Welfare, our nominated charity for 2025.
Participants record miles annually and remain a member of WES for the duration of the challenge.
On achieving 500 miles, you are awarded an inscribed silver belt buckle supplied by Montana Silversmiths.
This special one-off scheme is open to the first ten members to sign up!

❗New rules on tack!

Previously we required the Trail Awards to be completed whilst riding in western tack.

Under the new rules, we will accept non-western tack including stock saddles and English tack for a maximum of 50 hours of the challenge (or 50 miles if you have entered the special 40th Anniversary 500 miles award).

We want to encourage people at the beginning of their western riding journey to participate even if they haven’t yet got all the gear!

🔎 A new in-hand element!

We recognise that there may be times when horses are exercised on the trails in-hand, rather than under saddle – they may be young or old, rehabbing from injury, or just because it’s fun!

So, we are introducing an in-hand element where up to 50 hours (or 50 miles if you have entered the special 40th Anniversary 500 miles award) of your Trail Award can be completed in-hand.

⚠️ A focus on safety

We encourage Trail Awards participants to prioritise their safety and that of their horse at all times.

We recommend hard hats when riding, good quality and well fitted tack, hats and gloves when working in-hand, sturdy footwear, hi-viz for you and your horse, and carrying a mobile phone, hoof pick and first aid kid.