After more than ten years without hardly ever sitting on a horse, I have decided that it’s time to get back into endurance riding. I have learned a lot about living in that time, and although I haven't ridden much, I have thought more about interacting with horses than I ever had in my prior 15 years of endurance competition. I am interested in seeing how that thinking will affect my conditioning and competition.

I will be starting out with a 13 - maybe 14 - year old mare, SE Kelsey Grae (Ben Nasrif X Sunlit Suraseyna), bred by my husband Paul and me for endurance. Kelsey is well broke to ride - she was started by me and turned over to a certified Parelli trainer - but she is actually quite green because I have hardly ridden her these past 10 years.

I am pretty well broke to ride too. I'm 55, and since I started this craziness, I've covered thousands of pleasure trail and conditioning miles. I started competing in endurance in the late 70s, and among my endurance accomplishments picked up two Tevis buckles along the way. Lest anyone think it was easy, let me point out that I also was pulled from Tevis three times, once at the 90 mile point for what amounts to rider stupidity.

We will be on an even basis, the two of us not newbies but having no conditioning at all, and both slightly long in the tooth for having to start up now.

I am not a person who is interested in winning rides, but rather in completing rides to the very best of my and my horse's ability that day on that trail. The only competition for me out there will be my own self. If all goes well, I would expect our first competition to be sometime in 2005, and it will be a 50 mile race.

Let the Games begin!