The was my first Limited Distance ride with AERC.  It was two weeks after the very fun and technical ride with NATRC.  This ride is very flat and a lot of road riding.   At that time, I wasn't very impressed with riding this ride.  I had some unforseen complications also. The day before we left, Diamond stepped on her front left shoe so only had three.  A horse trailer neighbor next to us sold me a pair of boots that Diamond used one of for the first few miles before she kept stepping on it also and destroyed it.  I rode the first half of the ride with my new friend while Karla, who came with me, rode the Intro ride.  Long story short, Diamond did great ... she crossed three super scary bridges without other horses around and without hesitation.. one being a long steel bridge.  She also passed by some pretty scary oil derricks also.  The second half was pretty uneventful except I had to push her a little to make it in on time.  We came in and vetted in .... COMPLETION!  YAY!

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There were 43 starters, 40 completions and I came in 39th place :)  Got an award for being next to last turtle :) 

I was happy to get a completion because even if you ride the entire ride and your horse doesn't vet out by getting a "fit to continue", you don't get a completion.   My goal is 100% completions for AERC.