On the international front, 2009 was the “off year” of the quadrennial for senior championships and games. We will complete this quad with the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games (here in Kentucky) later this year, the Pan American Games (in Guadalajara, Mexico) in 2011 and the Olympic Games (in London) in 2012.

Any sort of year-end review is automatically suspect, because it depends too often upon the unique perspective of the reviewer. I’m reminded of Erich Remarque’s World War I classic, entitled, with savage irony, All Quiet On The Western Front, not so quiet for the book’s protagonists.

The year 2009 turned out better than I expected. The mood of the country at the end of 2008 was depressed by the plummeting economy yet hopeful that President-elect Obama would pull a rabbit out of his hat and fix things–fast.

We were good to worry. It helped us to make some difficult choices, learn what’s most important, and how to stretch our limited resources. Life goes on. Competitions were held (most of them), some even had increased entries. World Championships were held and medals were won!