MEET THE JUNIOR Alexandria Kirkland

My name is Alexandria Kirkland, and I started riding horses endurance-style almost three years ago, on my 11th birthday. My first ride was more of a two-hour gallop, but from the moment I hopped on, I was hooked.

Not long after that, I fell in love with a wonderful little chestnut mare named AK Ginger. I am a nationally-ranked Tae Kwon Do athlete, and consequently extremely competitive, so soon I began to look for ways to compete with my horse. I set my sights on endurance riding with the help of tor Butler. My parents, after some hesitation, agreed to let me try this. Their theory was, "Maybe after being on a horse for so long, she'll get over this horse phase." They were not so lucky.

My first endurance ride was a two-day ride on Labor Day weekend, and I thought it would be a blast to do back-to-back 50s. That didn't turn out to be so great. It was near 100 degrees throughout the first day, so I settled on doing 50 miles the first day and 25 miles the second day. Although most of the miles were torturous, I soon forgot about that, and began to plan my next ride.

One of my favorite memories of Ginger is a memory I sure won't forget. I started the ride with a sponsor going at a slow pace, and everything seemed to work out for the first 30 minutes. But shortly after the start of the ride, the sky opened up, and it poured. Due to rain earlier in the week, the trails were soaked.

But the bad luck did not stop there. We had to ride those trails after more than 100 horses had galloped through it, and the trails were in the worst shape I've ever seen. The mud was so deep that we had to ride off the trails and into the forest. We were forced to walk through the mud, and time quickly began running out.

We left for our last loop still with a chance to finish within the time limit. A quarter into the loop, it got dark. And we were in the woods with no moonlight. Luckily, my sponsor had brought a headlamp, but it still wasn't enough light to see the trail. Strangely enough, Ginger seemed to hit full stride at this point and took the lead, and so I just followed those two ears in front of me. We were finally shown some mercy when ride management rerouted the loop to a drier trail. We finished with just 10 or 15 minutes to spare, and as we came into camp, I could see the relief on my poor mother's face.

But my time with Ginger was limited because of the extensive training involved with Tae Kwon Do. But fate would have it that I injured my shoulder severely last winter, which put my martial arts training on hold. I had feared that my injury would hold me back in endurance riding also, but with a stroke of luck, the shoulder movements required for riding don't affect my shoulder at all.

However, I have had other obstacles to overcome to get to these rides. My mom and I don't have a trailer or a truck, so getting my horse to these rides is difficult because she doesn't seem to fit into our SUV. Luckily, we have been able to haul up with Darolyn Butler until I can convince my parents to buy a trailer.

But through everything I do to get to these rides, I could not do this without my mother, who also serves as a great (and tolerant) crew, or without my loyal partner Ginger, who gives me everything she has every single time. I have had so many experiences at endurance rides, from sleeping in the back of my mom's SUV to a brown recluse spider making a home in our camping gear.

I now know that my dream of a 1,000-mile certificate is by no means impossible. At the last ride, I realized that crossing the finish line of our first ride was only the start line of an incredible adventure together.

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