Santa Fe, N.M. - By all accounts 2009 has been quite a year for Savanah Reeves. It all started back in December for the Dublin, Texas cowgirl. She graduated from Tarleton State University in Stephenville with a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing. If that wasn't enough, she married PRCA steer wrestler and Wrangler National Finals Rodeo qualifier Matt Reeves as well.

Now, Reeves is ranked 10th in the WPRA NFR standings and inching ever closer to her dream of qualifying for the Wrangler NFR. She moved up two notches last week with her big win at the 60th Annual Rodeo de Santa Fe in New Mexico.

Reeves ran second out in the first performance and posted a time of 16.86 seconds.

"The pattern was set way down the arena so I tried to get into the arena as much as I could before going and he worked good," Reeves says of her 8-year old sorrel gelding, Six Jet Moon, known around the barn as Moon. "He hung a bit behind the third barrel but was really running hard.

"Being out in the first perf, I had no idea what to expect with only 12 girls having run," she says. "It was a nice surprise to win it."

Not that Reeves wasn't challenged through the final four perfs and slack. With 83 total entries, the barrel racers were running at a tremendous pot of over $15K. Reeves was almost bumped during the third perf by another lady making a hard charge for the Wrangler NFR, Dothan, Ala., cowgirl Tammy Bruso. Bruso's 16.87 was just a hair's breadth behind Reeves to finish second; she is ranked 23 in the NFR standings.

Moon is a home grown talent raised by Reeves and her family and trained by her mom, Kim Stephens. He is by famous sire Martha Six Moons and out of a Jet of Honor mare. Reeves ran him at a few futurities as a five year old, winning one and placing at another - the WPRA Futurity held in Alvarado, Texas. She began moving him into rodeo competition at age six.

"I just graduated college in December," Reeves says, "so now I can rodeo full time, which I was never able to before." Reeves doesn't get to travel with new hubby Matt much as schedules are tough to coordinate with two family members working towards the WNFR. Matt is currently 14th.

Reeves has had a great winter, placing high at Fort Worth, Denver, and Houston and winning rodeos in Alexandria, La., Goliad and Helotes, Texas. She has won over $35K on the year, already matching her 2008 total for the season, which landed her 25th in the final 2008 standings.

"It's my ultimate goal to make the WNFR," Reeves admits. "We had a good winter but the last couple of months have been slow. Hopefully we can pick it up."

With a win at Santa Fe worth $3,000, Reeves has the momentum swinging the right way going into the Fourth of July run. She is also making her first trip to the Calgary Stampede in a couple of weeks - while money won there doesn't help contestants get to the Wrangler NFR, it can certainly buy plenty of diesel for the truck.

Reeves, who is sponsored by Myristol ("thanks to them for backing me!"), is sending Moon to Colorado Springs and Casper while she is running another horse at Calgary. So she will be on the trail from Alberta and back following the busy Fourth. Luckily, her mom is with her for a couple of weeks to help out.

With just three months left in the season - and three of the most lucrative rodeo months to boot - all WPRA cowgirls will be in a sprint to the finish to see who ends up under the bright lights in Las Vegas come December.