Hello everyone, I'm just back from the annual convention where my fellow board members did me the honor of electing me vice president.

One of my duties is to write a monthly column but there was so little time this month, I thought I would just give you a short autobiography.

I started in this sport about 26 years ago. I had done all other horse sports--showing, jumping, racing barrels, etc. While doing each of these, I also took my horses on trail between events. I was very excited to learn that there was a sport made up totally of trail riding.

I started off just crewing but soon tried a 25 miler. That wasnÕt much more than I did for fun on an ordinary weekend so I decided to try a 50. The first one nearly killed me but I was hooked and 12,000-plus miles later I still love this sport just as much as I did in the beginning.

My family is pretty involved, too. My daughter and son-in-law, Nina and Duane Barnett, compete as much as I do and in fact were married on a Sunday following a ride since that was the only way they could be sure their parents would attend as DuaneÕs dad rides also. My husband has crewed for me ever since I started. He says he is my "pilot"--picks up the horse manure and "piles it."

I have had the longtime partnership of some wonderful horses--7000 miles, a couple of 3000 milers and the current one is over 1000 miles. Obviously I like going year after year with the same horse. I have ridden all distances from limited distance to multidays and have been to almost all regions, either to compete or crew.

I love this sport for so many reasons but I think primarily because of all the great people who are involved. I feel we are one big family.

In future columns I will discuss many subjects such as helmets, the "big tent," and the other very important duty of the VP, chairing the Hall of Fame committee. If you have some subjects you would like for me to tackle, please let me know.