The year 2010 was a period of growth for Siren Song Stable and Annika Bruggeworth. With wins in approximately 200 classes they were the first stable to win a new, prestigious title at the USEF annual convention: Saddlebred Performance Owners of the Year. In addition they captured 5 USEF National Championships with CH Callaway's Merry Go Round, Joe Fabulous, Ch Sagaman. CH Sue Me, Follow The Sun and Reserves with Hoof Prince and Finally a Prince. Siren Song Stable also dominated the Zone 11 Awards with all of the above as well as the staples of the stable, Attache's Crown Royal and Gooitzen fan Teakesyl. Not bad for a show string averaging ten horses.

“We won the Performance Owners Award,” Annika said, “because we have horses we personally own in almost all the open divisions, 3-Gaited, 5-Gaited, Fine Harness and Park: in addition we have entries in Pleasure, Amateur, Junior Exhibitor, and Equitation. Diversity is one of our goals and we do the best we can as a private stable and family owned operation to represent in many divisions. We attend all the northeast shows and help make sure those classes are filled. I especially enjoy entering my horses in Open Stakes, and I've got just the trainer to do it in Gerald Hutson. A true stake horse is becoming a bit of a novelty at many Saddlebred shows. "Saving " the stake horses for the bigger competitions may be why you see the trend going to the Jackpot system. "We liked it because we get to show two stake horses in each division last year." Annika is in this sense, an old-fashioned owner, almost from another era, recalling the days when private stables existed for the purpose of campaigning horses shown by professionals while the owners cheered wildly from the stands. “We'll never stop trying to do that,” she said. “I don't want to see the Open classes disappear. In fact some like Crown Royal and Joe Fabulous flourish with the skill of a Trainer for now and perhaps forever."

To the conservative show horse public, it may seem strange to refer to Annika and Siren Song as old fashioned. She often defies tradition, an extravert who sees no reason to hide her natural flair and unquenchable enthusiasm: she lives life to the fullest. At exhibitor's parties and other horse show events, she’s out there dancing and partying up a storm, amusing some and alienating others. She knows she is not everyone's cup of tea and some might perceive her as too direct, and outspoken,, “I am who I am,” she said. “I couldn't change if I wanted to, and I don't want to. Life is so short and we are always in a rush. You only have a few minutes to get your point across and I don't want to worry about packaging everything so people like it. With that philosophy there have admittedly come some mistakes and hindsight is 20/20."

“Last year,” Annika told the interviewer, “I pushed too hard and I wanted to prove so much. I had a new trainer and a exciting string of horses. We did so well in our own territory and beyond but I made the mistake of expecting the same at the big national shows.” While the last thing she wants to do is conform to someone’s notion of decorum, she is learning to slow down and “walk the walk". "Last year I lived every day like it was my last. Now I feel like if we don't achieve it this year, we'll do it the next.” She pauses, and sums up how she felt at the end of the year: “ I think overeagerness occasionally made me appear like a beginner and that sadly is NOT what I am. I have been showing nationally on and off for forty years.”

If there’s a single thing Annika would like to change from last year, it’s her decision to enter Attache’s Crown Royal at the Kentucky State Fair. Known around the barn as Roy, he is Annika’s kind of invincible horse. Amazingly, he spent his early years as an amateur horse under direction of Cash Lovell, but easily attained the look and drive of a classic five-gaited stake horse. What you notice most about Roy is his power, he builds momentum, until at the end he seems to blow away his competition. That is, if he is sound....

In 2009, under the training of Melinda Moore, Attache’s Crown Royal had a brilliant show at the Kentucky State Fair. In the Gaited Stake Roy started without a great deal of fanfare, but as the class progressed, he came on strong as only he can. He took off on the reverse, and by the final rack performed with furious intensity, all his momentum bursting through. The crowd got with him. Annika and Melinda and everyone else in the hall anticipated a workout because in classical stake horse fashion, Roy is a horse who builds to a workout.

It never happened. The work-out was not called for, in a decision that has not been made in decades. Annika does not second-guess the judges, but neither does she hide her disappointment. Roy tied reserve to the new World’s Grand Champion Courageous Lord, given a great ride by the five-gaited master Merrill Murray in what may have been Roy's best opportunity ever.

Annika’s goal then became to get Roy back to Louisville in 2010. Not because she was sure he would win, but because she wanted to show the world what he could do in a work-out. But once again over-eagerness would be her undoing! He seemed headed for the ultimate challenge of his career after winning championships at UPHA Spring Premier and Devon, came into his own at the Children’s Benefit show two weeks prior to Louisville. That fateful night, Roy built and built until he seemed to engulf the entire arena, a huge enclosure with dimensions suited to Western events. In the middle of August, during one of the most brutal heat waves the East Coast has ever experienced. On the day Roy won at Children’s Benefit, the Philadelphia Phillies, just across the Delaware, played in 110 degree heat. The heat didn't break a bit that night, in fact the temperature in the arena registered whopping 104 degrees at 10 p.m.when they called the class. Was this too much for Roy, or any horse making a flat out power show? Maybe. His performance was so spectacular that Louisville was impossible to resist. In all the excitement, Roy did sustain a minor leg injury, but no one thought that would bother him. They thought that he'd get going and forget about it. Everyone who knows the horse assumed he was indestructible.

Though he was showing signs of trouble, everybody thought Roy was ready for the show of his life. Everybody, that is, except Roy. “When I asked him to rack in the Gelding Stake,” Jerry Hutson said at the time, “he told me no. He wasn't going to do it, and there was no way I was going to push him.” Almost without anyone noticing, Jerry exited the ring. People waiting to see his big booming rack, that gait that wins for him, were stunned. The Gelding class lost much of its drama as Courageous Lord, by now a seasoned campaigner, easily won again, and then went on to win his second World’s Grand Championship. In an ironic twist, the Bruggeworth's had sponsored the very class that Roy would leave. Annika put on a brave smile and presented the coveted award to Courageous Lord and Merril.

“I know we wouldn't have beaten him this year,” Annika said. “ If there was any relief in the mishap, NOONE could have beat Courageous Lord this year. He’s a true World’s Grand Champion, and this year was his finest performance. Nonetheless we would have liked to be in there against him and the rest.”

The way the gelding class developed this year made Annika rethink her decision making process. She vows now to take things in a more cautious fashion, to wait if the time isn't just right.

Roy’s exiting at Louisville was not all tragedy!" she says brightly, “It gave Joe Fabulous his chance,” Annika said. “We never thought of him as our top stake horse. He’s small in stature, but his carriage, headset, beauty and bloodlines combined, gave him the biggest heart I've ever witnessed. He always gives you everything he’s got.” Joe is also a horse that seems to have been put on earth for Jerry Hutson to show. “The two of them work together in unison,” Annika said. “They understand each other. It’s a joy to watch them.” By I'm A New Yorker and out of BHF Featherlite, Joe Fabulous undoubtably will prove to be a strong producer once he starts breeding regularly, but for now he is proving himself in the showring. Joe had a big year. In September he won at Eastern States, went on to take a first and reserve out of eight at one of the most competitive five-gaited shows of the year, the North Carolina State Championship at Raleigh. He was reserve champion stallion at Kansas City, and wound up third in the Saddle Horse Report top 10, coming in behind the Champions Heir Comes the Man and Annabel Allison. His final award was his biggest: the National USEF Five-Gaited Open Championship.

None of this means last year was a disappointment for Siren Song. As noted, they were voted Performance saddlebred Owners of the year by the governing body of American horse shows. Annika is also proud of the stable’s six finishers in Saddle Horse Report’s top ten.This contest represents hundreds of horses nationally, counted in each division.

Annika takes great pride also in her son Scotty Brooks’ Good Hands finish in the top ten of equitation. Scotty improved throughout the year, in his 9-year-old Walk and Trot season with a win of the prestigious New England Medal at Eastern States. he also garnered a reserve walk and trot ten and under at the American Royal and a top ten in the Good Finals finals for the same. The combination of work and glamour sums up the character of Annika Bruggeworth. She doesn't separate the two, but blends them into her own tapestry. She drives herself hard, living life to the fullest and never leaves glamour and showmanship out. She is Administrator and Director of Marketing for her husband Scott’s five multi specialty dental practices, Signature Smiles. At the same time, she runs Siren Song. With its many Saddlebreds plus contingency of Friesians, Siren Song is a multi- specialty stable. Then there’s her riding and showing eight horses, herself and of course parenting of Winter Blaise and Scotty Brooks.

Annika says she likes to put unorthodox arrangements together and make them work. In a way, this describes her life, tells who she is. An example is her bringing Melinda and Melissa Moore plus Laurel Nelson to Jan Lukens’ Christmas party. “I wanted to bring my past and present trainers together for a festive reunion.” The reunion was nothing if not unorthodox, as Jerry and Cassidy Hutson drove Melinda Moore and the former Mrs. Hutson to the party. Everyone got along wonderfully, and according to reports had the time of their lives.

“It’s has almost been perfect,” Annika says of the world she’s created " But I have a way to go in the show horse world. I have been surprised by some of the resistance I have encountered because we actually need fresh blood in the industry. Though I am not new, Siren Song is and it was far from easy to launch this endeavor and the closed doors I have encountered have taken some of the "fun" out of it." she laments. However, she continues to break new ground in the Saddlebred community, and to astonish as she does. Whether or not everyone approves, she is making a difference.