For the 2009 amateur trail finals on November 8, show management decided to hold all scores until the end, and the anticipation mounted as the placings were announced. Joanne Garnett of Lincoln, Nebraska, and So Much Potential, aka “Louis,” were the last horse and rider pair left in the arena – they scored a 224.5. Eighth in the go in a class of several former trail world champions, Joanne and Louis had been confident in the forward pattern with a challenging chute-to-chute backup. It was their second amateur trail world championship; they won their first in 2006. The win comes after a challenging summer for Joanne. Her husband, Mike, was injured unsaddling a horse three days after the Redbud Spectacular, ending up with a punctured and collapsed lung that threatened his life. “It changed my perspective on horse showing,” Joanne said in her in-the-arena interview. The Journal asked her more after the awards ceremony.
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