Just looking back over my 2009 season and all I can say is "Wow, what a year it has been!"

First off I would like to thank the Graber Family in Indiana who purchased my matched pair of Hackney Horse fillies last October thus giving me the funds to make 2009 possible. Also to Leigh Gowdy-King for letting me pair up with Bask N Coins+ (aka Loosi). Many more thanks to my pit crew Vivianne Macdonald and Art King and all the others who have helped along the way.

I started off the year getting pumped to ride at the AERC Convention. I had a 2- to 3- fold goal for the year - 1) ride my absolute best at the Appaloosa National Championship Endurance Ride and 2) complete 350 Endurance miles in one season to get Loosi her Appaloosa Bronze Medallion (which 3) - should get her an Arabain Supreme Legion of Honor).

To do this I had to ride more US rides than Canadian rides for the year in order to get the needed mileage. We only did 3 CTRs all season.

Along the way Loosi and I set a personal best time for the 50 at Shore to Shore Warm Up clocking in 9th in 5:13 and then beat that record at the Cracked Oaats Crunch/Reg 14 Ch/Appy Nationals with a blistering 3rd place finish of 4:46:02.

Along the way we garnered 4 AERC Top 10s, Reserve Champion at the Appy Nationals, Reserve Champion AHA Reg 14 Half-Arabian, Top Lightweight Rider at Cracked Oaats, plus both mother and I winning our weight divisions at the Oaats Celebration Competitive Trail AND I rode 3 days of the fantastic Shore to Shore ride (2 days on Loosi and catch riding on the 3rd day).

Might not seem like much but way back at Aprilfest 2000, doing my first 50, I swore I would never do another one - I was in soooo much agony with my knees. It took almost 3 years and another horse later before I attempted my next 50 at Oktoberfest 2003.

Now look at me knocking off 50's like they were nothing. By my calculations (not all reporting forms are input into computer databases yet) we accomplished all our goals - 350 miles = Appy Bronze Medallion, enough points to get our Arabian Supreme Legion of Honor (Loosi is not Bask N Coins+/) and all 3 of us should get our OCTRA 1500 miles.

Thanks OCTRA for being there to point riders in the right direction to achieve their personal goals.