Brooks trains with Missy Clark and Monty Kelly, the latter her brother. Her mother and father, Sandy and Richard, own Steppingstone Farm, home to some 50 or 60 horses, most for sale. So many different mounts provide Brooks invaluable experience that she'll utilize at the Finals. In addition to her equitation, she's also doing high junior jumpers.

The rising talent has been to the Medal Finals and Maclay three times, and has racked up various other medal wins throughout her budding career.

What challenges her? "My lower leg when it's a little loose. So I work without stirrups and work on the automatic release (placement of the hands on the sides of the horse's neck, allowing for loose reins.) I really hadn't used it until I started with Missy. It tests your balance.

"I've been with Missy a year now, and last year, at Finals, where I would usually get nervous, my head was completely clear. I didn't think about anything except riding. I thought, 'How does this woman do this for me?'

About Her Horses: Brook's equitation mount, Playboy, a 10-year-old Warmblood gelding, "is a punk. He's good and bad," laughs Brooks. " 'He is so mean,' my mom said. When I first got him, I went into the stall to tack him up, and he turned around with his butt totally towards me and I was stuck in the corner. He was telling me he didn't like what I was doing. After I got on him, he was excellent. He's always good at the Finals. I mean, he'll give me trouble all year long, but at Finals, he's phenomenal. He knows what to do.

"My mom spent a whole year riding in a trailer with him. He doesn't ship. When he came from Europe, he had problems on the plane, and then was in a bad trailer accident. Nobody wanted him because of this."

Confirming his bad-boy image, the horse sticks his tongue out at Brooks, who obligingly provides treats for her "bad boy."

Her high junior jumper of six months, eight-year-old Warmblood gelding, Pinball Wizard," is "an excellent horse," evaluates Brooks. "He'd been stopping with the guy who had him, but he's never done it with me. He must like me!"

Wiz has a great personality, according to his new owner, and is "always looking for something, like his treats. He jumps so well, with this feeling over a jump of his hind end totally kicking up, just like a turbo booster. His ears lie straight back on his head."