I joined an endurance club this year called the Quicksilver Endurance Riders. Mainly it's a northern california club that puts on various endurance and fun rides, and a good way to network with other endurance horsey folk. More recently in their monthly newsletters, they've had a feature called 'Member's Profile' where they publish a Q/A about a fellow club member. I was going through the questions and one of the questions was: What are your goals? I thought about this for a while. I don't ride to race.. Isabella and I aren't going to come in first or even top ten at a ride anytime soon. For some people, their ultimate goal is to ride a world famous 100 mile ride in California, the Tevis Race. I'm way too wimpy to do that. Up to 24 hours on a horse? No thank you. So I thought about who I admire in the sport.. I admire those that take care of their horses. I admire those that ride their horses with the hopes that there will be many more miles between them. It made me recall a quote from a prominent endurance vet:

The fine line between life and death for your horse is an extremely fine one. An astute rider will get a feeling from the horse long before any outside person, like a veterinarian, could ever hope to. Pay attention to what the horse is telling you and don't ride past your horses capabilities. Don't even think about testing the limits until you have the experience to know the answer to all of the questions yourself. David Nicholson, DVM

There is an "unofficial" recognition with the AERC that highlights the horse and rider team that have ridden in a 50 mile ride at least once each year for 10 years. The Decade Team Horse & Rider. Yes, that's the goal I want for me and Isabella!

I told Matt this recently and he gave me his encouragement.. but also mentioned, 10 years from now I'll be 38 years old. (Eeek, 38?!) He said I may have to take a few years off when I decide to make babies.. but heck, there are women riders out there that ride when they're pregnant.. There are women riders out there with infants that breastfeed their kids during vet check breaks! I'm not going to allow a small obstacle to get in the way.. all it'll do is add to the challenge of meeting my goal. :) 1 year down, 9 to go!