It did not look as if eighteen-year-old Sarah Willeman, from Hamilton, Massachusetts would be able to finish off her last year as a junior in top form.

On July 30, The USET Young Rider Training Grant recipient broke her foot, requiring major surgery. Applying laser, acupuncture and massage therapy, she also worked out daily and practiced mental visualization, as well as watching riding videos and reading books. She was not able to ride until five days before the Northeast Regional Maclay Finals, practicing without stirrups and walking the course on her crutches. Her efforts paid off, and Willeman won the class.

In September, Sarah Willeman had just started her freshman year at Stanford University, in California. But on the first weekend in October, she flew back east to meet her horse and trainer at the USET Headquarters, in Gladstone, New Jersey. There she went on to win one of America's premier competitions for Junior Jumper riders, the East Coast division of the BET/USET 2000 Show Jumping Talent Search Finals.

Running into her classmate Elise Haas, 1997 West Coast winner, in the halls at Stanford, might have been an omen, but it was her talent and style along the ability of her 12 year old Hannoverian Grappa a.k.a."The Moose", that clinched the title. Willeman was presented with The French Leave Perpetual Trophy, during the awards ceremony, while the Leading Trainer Award, a trophy donated by the late Mr. Hugh J.B. Cassidy, III, were presented to her trainers Missy Clark and Michael Keough, of East Aurora, New York.