Wow! Can you believe all the juniors who have written all those articles about all their adventures out on the endurance trail? From those who are just starting out their endurance careers to those who just completed the recent 2005 AERC National Championship -- don't they all deserve a big round of applause?

The Junior Committee set their goals this year to focus on the needs and wants of the junior riders. Plans are underway to improve our page on the AERC website. We'd like to offer more information for the junior-age riders, something along the lines of an "ask the experts" section. Junior riders can ask various endurance mentors questions. We're envisioning mentorsÑfrom former sponsored juniors to some of the top riders in our sportÑanswering questions about what you're interested in learning about.

We are also looking into formulating a questionnaire aimed at the junior riders to see what other things the junior riders want and/or need from AERC.

We also feel that there are a large number of junior riders out there in the general public who are unaware of endurance riding and what fun it is. We're developing a couple of articles about endurance that will be sent out to various horse magazines in the hopes of enticing more kids into our sport. We also plan on sending this information onto Pony Clubs and 4-H groups throughout the U.S. and Canada in hopes of finding more riders who may want to give endurance a try.

In December 2004 a motion was passed by the AERC board of directors that opened the door for juniors to be eligible for a 100-mile award. The AERC Junior National 100 mile award will be awarded, beginning in the 2006 ride season, to the top five juniors in one-day 100-mile ride mileage. Juniors must complete a minimum of two 100-mile rides to be eligible for the award.

We realize that there are inherent difficulties for juniors who wish to do 100 mile events, namely finding a sponsor (or often a few sponsors). Certainly we would like to see more juniors competing in 100 mile events, so what we're asking is for input on how we can make this happen. We want to hear from you, the juniors, and you, the willing sponsors. Hopefully we can put names together at 100 mile rides and get more kids out on trail doing 100 mile rides.

San Antonio, Texas, is where the AERC convention is going to be -- be sure to save February 24 and 25, 2006. Last year in Nevada the Junior Committee hosted a junior forum with panel speakers Karen and Jessica DeCamillo, Alina Vale, Valerie Kanavy, Randy Eiland and Jamie Kerr, DVM. It was a rather informal discussion which lasted way beyond the 90 minutes that we were allotted. It was a great time for those who attended with lots of questions being answered and lots of ideas being thrown out.

We're hoping to do something similar to this again in February, plus we'd like to have some type of get-together for those kids and young adults who are feeling a wee bit left out sometimes at the convention. We'll post information about the convention and plans for the youth of the sport on the website and in Endurance News.

Finally, please feel free to contact any of the AERC Junior Committee members if you have any questions that you might have or things you'd like to see. And for all those other junior riders out there please keep those ride stories coming in... we love to hear what you're doing!