Decade Team horses - Rocky. He completed 7640 miles in 11 years of competition. He's my baby, I've had him since he was a few months old!
I’ve been a little behind since getting back from Death Valley. I’ve been doing a lot of work with the Decade Teams for AERC. Okay, maybe not “a lot”, based upon actually producing something that others can see, but it’s getting there! I’ve got proof readers checking over the interview questions and will work on getting several new interviews up sometime this week.
I think it’s fabulous that there are 45 new Decade Teams in 2009! Awesome to see that the number of riders that are competing on their same horses for an entire decade in rides of 50 miles or more has grown so much. It is a great goal to have.
Here is the list: http://aerc.org/2009_AERC_Decade_Teams.asp. If you go to the AERC website be sure to check out some of the previous Decade Team interviews. Lots of great stuff in there! If the links don’t work copy and paste the first one, or go to aerc.org and look for the menu item called “membership recognition”.
Congratulations to all of the riders and their horses. It is a really special gift to be able to ride the same horse for ten years. I am just so excited to see how longevity has become an important goal for so many. Pretty cool, huh? 
The links are broken – easy enough to figure out where they’re supposed to go, and I’m reading the prior interviews now, but I thought you’d like to know! Thanks for the links
The 2010 hoof boot tip posting disappeared before I could read it.
Thank you for posting this. My goal is to someday be on that list. What’s difficult is what may be a contridiction between my goal of being a decade team and my love of 100′s. My chances are better for the decade if I stick to 50′s….but I just love the 100′s. *sigh*. This is my 3rd season on Farley. 7 more to go!
Karen, What if you miss a year? I think the Decade Team is a very prestiougous accomplishment but I have 2 mares that I will eventually breed at some point. Does it have to be every year for 10 years? Also, your link has never worked. Thanks for the update, can’t wait to see it.
Hi Lauren – you don’t have to be consecutive on the years. Just ten ride seasons spaced however it works out! I’m going to do an update to WordPress right now that will hopefully fix the linking issues as well as having some of my posts go back to draft mode.
How close are you with Rosie? This is Chief’s 9th season, I can’t believe how time flies! btw – there are actually 48 on the list which includes 3 riders that started as juniors!
I’m trying to fix a couple of problems – check back later! (sorry) karen