Tori Colvin and Ovation, winners of the $50,000 WCHR Palm Beach Hunter Spectacular.

It’s finally time for a deep breath. After a whirlwind week of traveling, photography, interviewing and writing, my magazine, In Stride, is off to the printer tonight. I work with a wonderful editor and designer, and after two-plus years together, I feel like we’re a well-oiled machine.

It was also quite fortunate that all of the machines that brought me back from Florida yesterday, an old, black Crown Victoria rental car (don’t ask!), two Delta airplanes and a Tahoe, all functioned smoothly to get me home by dark. I edited photos on the fly and during my layover in the Atlanta airport, and started writing the article early this morning, sending everything to the editor by mid-afternoon.

Heidi, the designer, took over from there, producing a beautiful layout from the many photos, sidebars, and the 2,000-word article. With a 7 p.m. deadline, we had our work cut out for us.

Making tight deadlines is always a challenge, but over the years I’ve realized that the team you work with makes all of the difference. We may not have earned a blue ribbon tonight, but we certainly won the race.