Angie says endurance found her in 1987. She now has 3200+ American Endurance Ride Conference (AERC) recorded miles. She and husband Bill of 19 years live in Wildwood, Georgia, (just outside Chattanooga, TN). They have 2 daughters, Bonnie 15, and Josie 11. Angie says that Bill used to trail ride with her "back before the kids came along, and he did one 50 miler." Fifteen year old Bonnie has done one 25 miler and is busy with cheerleading and softball, but "Josie loves endurance like her Mom."

Angie says," I was born begging for a horse. My mother swears that from the time my dad sat me on a pony at 18 months old I was obsessed." She says, " I was on a mission to get one." Her tactics must have worked, as her parents bought her first pony when she was 11.

She continues, "I'm the fifth of 6 children. After my younger sister was born when I was 8 nobody noticed me much, which I thought was wonderful. So long as I made it home for the head count every night I was free to go as far as my pinto pony could carry me."

She says that she did her first endurance ride in 1987 on an Appaloosa. "For the first 3 years I was trying to start a family and though I ate, drank and slept endurance, I didn't get to do more than one ride a year until 1990 when I got my first Arabian, a slow but solid completer I named Isaiah 40:31." She purchased Kaboot, an unregistered Purebred Arabian when he was almost 5. He's now 12. The gray gelding has proved an able competitor and has 6, 100-mile completions, finishing the Biltmore in 1998 in 15th place with a ride time of 15:11 ; in 1999, in 18th place with a ride time of 13:27; and in 2001 in 16th place with a ride time of 15:10.

Angie says, "If he catches a glimpse of a horse up ahead, we have to catch it. It is a search and destroy mission on his part." While training for his first race he was chasing down another horse when he hit a slick spot on the grass at a gallop and fell, breaking Angie's collarbone and splitting her helmet. This proved only a temporary setback. "After having surgery and a 6" metal plate screwed to my collarbone we completed our first 50 at the Gold Rush Ride in Dawson Forest," Angie says. " At this time I had $700 invested in my horse and Blue Cross had over $13,000. After 800 fairly moderate miles I entered him in our first 100 and he did great. I don't know what that did to him but after that he suddenly became a top 5 finisher in 50's and started winning some year-end jackets. Every time I think he's gotten as good as he's going to get, he seems to step up another notch."

What is her training regimen in getting ready for the Pan Am race? "We train much differently at the level he's at now than we did earlier in his career. Right now in the off-season I try to ride 3 times a week, every other day or so. I avoid 2 days in a row. I have LOTS of hills, and I do maybe one day of just an hour or so of trotting and some gallops on hills. Another day I'll go out and really go for some high heart rates 200+ running up some hills, and then just some relaxed fast trotting...maybe an hour or an hour and a half. I try to work a little on control, but not much luck there. Saturday I would take a long ride...20-25 miles."

She says that Kaboot has no special shoeing problems "In the past Kaboot has always simply worn a wide web shoe with clips. Kaboot trots so wide in the back he has no problems with any sort of interfering."

What is her strategy in thinking ahead about the race? "I think that on a good day Kaboot can travel with the best out there. I feel that the fact that I train in the North Georgia mountains (or is it a rain forest this time of year?) gives me an advantage in that my horse is used to the hard surfaces and the hills, but is adapted to far worse heat & humidity. August in Vermont should feel like Autumn to him."