Lucy Badenhoop fell in love with her grandpa’s plow horse as a pre-schooler, but never realized her childhood dream to own a trail horse until she retired. Since then, Lucy has enjoyed the many trails in her region and tried to make them better. The path to becoming a trails advocate was not planned, but many life choices gave her skills that help the cause. College degrees (a BS in Business Administration from Oregon State University and an MS in Accounting from California State University) provided the financial framework for managing her own and organizational funding. A divorce in 1975 forced a single mom of three to become an avid do-it-yourselfer, so all tools (like chain saws) became friends. The divorce also mandated a stable career, so Lucy became a civilian employee of the Air Force Logistics Command (AFLC) at McClellan AFB in Sacramento, California. This included two years at the Pentagon (1988 and 1989). Like all military entities, AFLC is big on training the skills they need, so they made her a Project Manager for aircraft modification programs. When Lucy left for the Pentagon, she had just become an empty nester, so upon returning to Sacramento in 1990, she focused on her own interests. At that time, she was a recreational hiker and joined the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department Search and Rescue Team (which had an equestrian component). When aging mobility issues limited hiking, Lucy switched to the mounted option. As retirement neared, Lucy purchased a 2-acre mini ranch (a house on bare land) and started preparing for equestrian living. At first it was mini horses for therapy visits to Shriner’s Hospital or senior homes. By 2008, she had the fencing, barn, and RV facilities for trail horse camping and found her trail horse Mohawk at a rescue sanctuary. Mohawk introduced Lucy to a new circle of equestrian friends at the Sacramento Horsemen’s Association (SHA), Backcountry Horsemen of California (BCHC as a Wilderness Rider), Mother Lode Unit (BCHC-MLU as Treasurer), Sacramento Valley Equestrian Patrol (SVEP member), and National Pony Express Association (NPEA member). This prompted becoming a sawyer and packer which led to horse camping. By 2016, all the elements (financial management, project management and trail skills) had joined together to start organizing trail projects and seek funding for them – which led to self-taught grant writing for BCHC-MLU trail projects. By 2020, Lucy was teaching others to write grants. In 2022, she became involved with grant writing for the BCHC Packing Intern Program. The USFS has the capability to train up to six packer interns every summer, but BCHC has struggled to fund one with donations. In 2023, a new 50/50 policy was adopted to seek half donations and half grants. At the same time, a more stable long-term funding program using an endowment type option was being investigated. Lucy chairs BCHC’s Intern Committee made up of representatives from the Center for Excellence and Eastern Sierra Conservation Corps.