MEET THE JUNIOR Elizabeth Russell

As I sat at my trailer after the 50-mile National Championship ride, I began to think how I got here. I started riding competitively in the end of the 2003 season. Going to my first ride wasn't exactly planned. I was a last-minute fill-in for a slot in Darolyn Butler's trailer going to a 50-mile ride at Ft. Worth Skyline.

I didn't have a horse of my own, so Darolyn picked out a horse that, at that time, no one wanted to ride. (Who would've guessed that that mare and I would ever get to the National Championship ride. But we did!) We finished Skyline in a ride time of 6:05, 10th place overall and with a newfound passion for the sport of endurance.

Now the owner of DJB Double Trouble (DT, a grey Arabian mare 15 hands tall), we have over 1000 competitive miles together, including two Pioneer awards, two best condition awards and 13 top 10 overall completions.

In June we set out on a major road trip in Darolyn's trailer to Ashland, Montana for the 2005 AERC National Championship ride. After three days on the road we pulled into the ride site. We unpacked the necessary rain gear and moved on to the important task of shoeing our normally barefoot horse. Christoph Schork shod DT with a nice new set of polyurethane shoes.

DT had four days before ride day to become adjusted to the new shoes, altitude, and terrain.

Ride day began cool and dry with a cloud cover. RJ Wetzel, on DJB Abednegos Flame (Bennie), was my sponsor. DT and Bennie ride very well together. RJ and I put a plan together for the ride. It appears our planning worked quite well. I was nervous going into the ride because I knew it was the National Championship and there were competitors who I had never ridden against.

My nervousness went away as soon as we hit the trail. After that, it was all about my Arabian mare. I really liked the trails. They were in excellent condition, were very well marked, and were definitely challenging. Jan and Bill Stevens did a terrific job as ride managersÑexcept for the mud, which they need to work on.

All of the vets did an awesome job of getting everyone through the checks quickly. It really was a memorable event!

My horse and I really love endurance riding, and hope to continue for a long time. I would have never gotten to this point in my endurance riding career without the help of a lot of wonderful people associated with Cypress Trails Equestrian Center: Darolyn Butler, Mark Dial, Monty Reese, Vikki Hudson, RJ Wetzel, and a many others. Special thanks to Gail and Paul Zeck.

See ya at the next one!

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