Not many 13-year-olds have their own horsemanship program. But Lizzy Traband isn’t like most 13-year-olds.

For Lizzy, a State College, Pa., native who helps train horses at her parents’ Carousel Farm, being born without a left forearm never made her different from anyone else.

“Just because you have a disability doesn’t mean you can’t ride like everyone else,” Lizzy said. “Because I have a disability, I think it’s made me have a little more grit to prove that, no matter what, you don’t let it hold you back.”

Lizzy grew up riding hunters on the “A” circuit. When she was 6 years old, her now famous pony Toby started dumping her at fences, and she decided he needed a different job.

Lizzy had seen trick trainer Tommie Turvey perform at Theatre Equus, and convinced her parents to take Toby and another horse to his clinic at the Cook Forest Trail Ride.  Turvey taught Toby to bow and started teaching Lizzie to ride bridleless.  He presented clinics at their Carousel Farm and developed a relationship with the family.  As Lizzie progressed, he asked her to join him at expos and at his “Night of Amazing Horses.”  Toby’s new job became performing tricks and demonstrations with Lizzy in front of thousands of people.

The storybook season ended a few yards too soon.

Breaking from post 10 in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile race, Chadds Ford Stable’s Union Rags ran very wide around both turns losing valuable ground before closing quickly down the middle of the track in the final furlong. Phyllis Wyeth’s onrushing Union Rags was reeling in Hansen as the two drove toward the wire, but the front-runner hung on desperately to eke out a win by a short head on Nov. 5.

Hansen broke from post five and sped to the lead with a dream trip on the rail. In stark contrast Union Rags was shuffled back to sixth early and hung four wide on the first turn and five wide on the far turn. Then in mid-stretch Union Rags veered sharply to the outside costing him most of his momentum. He surged powerfully again, but simply ran out of time.  As the pair galloped out around the first turn Union Rags lengthened his lead. Both horses earned a modest speed figure of 94.

Runner-up Union Rags was probably the better horse, but it’s still the first head to the wire that wins. The Trakus data system employed by Churchill Downs measured Union Rags as having raced a whopping 78 feet more than the winner.

Margie Engle of Wellington, FL, riding Indigo, owned by Gladewinds & Shay Griese, won the $75,000 FEI World Cup Qualifier Grand Prix de Penn National, the crowning event at the 66th Annual Pennsylvania National Horse Show, held October 13-22 in Harrisburg, PA.

With this victory, Engle added yet another win to her impressive resume of 196 Grand Prix career wins yet this is her first Grand Prix win at Harrisburg. "It's great winning here. This one has always eluded me," said Engle. "I've been second five for six times and third a bunch, but this is the first time I won this one. It's really nice to be able to do well here."

The incredibly technical course by Steve Stephens proved to be too much of a challenge for the majority of riders. Five countries were represented in the field of 28 competitors, but it was three American riders who made the jump-off. Beezie Madden, Mario Deslauriers and Engle had the only clean rounds.

As has often been the case this fall, the top riders at the 2011 Dansko Fair Hill International entered the final show jumping page separated by razor thin margins.  With the top riders in both the CCI3* and CCI2* divisions tremendously close, clear rounds were at a premium. Boyd Martin and Kylie Lyman rose to the occasion producing fault-free rounds to win their CCI3* and CCI2* divisions as well as claim 2011 USEF National Eventing Championships.

The leaderboard in both the divisions at the Dansko Fair Hill International saw great fluctuations as a result of Sally Ike’s challenging track.