When we last left MacKenzie Thurman, she was wearing a sling on her arm and a frown on her face.

Just days before competing at the American Vaulting Association Nationals last August, she suffered a broken left arm that sidelined her for the biggest event of the year —and of her young career.

But 13 months later, she's back on horseback and wearing one wide smile of pride.

Not only did she once again qualify to compete at the national level, but she and her Mt. Eden Vaulting Club teammates brought the 2009 United States Equine Federation/AVA National Championship back from a trip to Lexington, Ky.

It didn't happen overnight, but she did get back on the proverbial horse last fall, once her six weeks of healing had passed. Though she was bummed that she had missed competing at the national level, she quickly shifted her focus to the future.

“It was disappointing,” she said. “I kind of thought about next year right away.”

By the end of last October, she was performing her vaulting routine once again as part of a competition in Novato. Weeks later she was commuting back and forth every Saturday from her family's Nevada City ranch to the Mt. Eden Vaulting Club in Saratoga in hopes of making the club's nationals team.

Vaulting is often described as gymnastics or dance on horseback. Competitors perform required movements and also add their own creative flair to their routines, which are judged for scoring.

In addition to practicing on weekends, she's also often found in the loft of the barn built by her father, Bob, working on her routines atop a barrel. She works the gymnastic movements in the sequence of her compulsory routine and then practices her freestyle form, as well.

And while her strength and grace is obvious in her solo performance, it's only with her teammates that she's able to practice her role as the team's “flyer,” as the top person in a pyramid-like formations atop a cantering draft horse. In some formations, her role requires her to stand with her arms fully extended more than 16 feet in the air, atop the horse circling around the arena.

“There's a level of trust between them that makes them so tight that I've never been worried,” said MacKenzie's mother, Joanna. “It's really, ultimately a game of trust.”

Because the team's success depends so greatly on balance, timing and trusting your teammates, the long treks back and forth to the Bay Area were an absolute necessity.

And, apparently, they paid off.

“I was really nervous,” MacKenzie said, remembering what it was like to take to center stage at Kentucky Horse Park. “It was a huge arena. I just pretended like it was practice, though.”

“We can never tell when she's nervous,” said Joanna. “She might have been nervous, but when she got out there, she was very confident in her performances and it was great to see that.”

On an individual level, MacKenzie currently competes in the Copper division, which she placed seventh nationally in the freestyle and fourth in regional competition. She plans to eventually contend in the Gold division, which her mother said could take as many as 10 years to reach through learning the levels of each discipline.

But the immediate future has her hoping to earn a spot on Mt. Eden's team that will vie to represent the United States in the 2010 World Equestrian Games. Lexington will serve as the host site of the event, which will be held in the United States for the first time next September. This September, though, she's been trying out as Mt. Eden's flyer.

“I'm nervous, because there are lots of people trying out,” MacKenzie said.

“It's not going to be a cakewalk,” her mom added, “but the coach is going to be building the strongest team possible.”

When she's not on horseback, atop a barrel or hanging out with her own horse, Tommy, in the pasture, MacKenzie keeps busy like any other 11-year-old fifth-grader might.

At Mount Saint Mary's, she's running cross country for the first time and is also working out with Gold Country Gymnastics team. She also enjoys watching the likes of Scooby Doo and Maxwell Smart on her trips back and forth to Mt. Eden, while also reading mysteries like Agatha Christie novels and has recently decided she'd like to become an FBI detective down the road.

In the meantime, though, she's hoping to land a spot on that World Equestrian Games team. And with any luck, she and her teammates might bring home as many as awards as they did in their last trip to Lexington.

“She didn't let go of that cup for quite awhile,” Joanna said of the silver cup each team member was awarded. “She was embarrassed at first and didn't want to go out there (to receive the award).

“But she wouldn't let go of it and carried that cup around for the rest of the trip.”

Perhaps, after missing out on last year's nationals, she was simply making up for lost time.

Brian Hamilton is sports editor at The Union. Contact him via e-mail at bhamilton@theunion.com or by phone at 477-4240.