Pageant News Bureau - Carrie Ann Mewha

On the Chinese lunar calendar, February 2002 to February 2003 is the Year of the Horse. On the Florida pageant scene, it could be the year of the horsewoman.

Carrie Ann Mewha, Miss Broward County USA, is a competitive rider and a former member of the Intercollegiate Horse Association. She may be the most beautiful woman to climb atop a horse since Lady Godiva. (We can't really be sure, because we were much too polite to peek when Lady Godiva galloped past.)

But Ms. Mewha, who competes for the Miss Florida USA title in July 2002, is more than just a ravishing rider. She's a doctor in the making. She just completed her first year of medical school.

"I started out wanting to be a veterinarian," says Ms. Mewha, who has had a love of animals for as long as she can remember. But she also loves children, and she wants to have a family of her own someday, and those feelings led her to choose a very special branch of human medicine. She plans to specialize in internal fetal medicine, treating babies before they are born and helping mothers prepare for delivery.

Ms. Mewha got into modeling and pageants in her teens, later than some of her friends. She has always enjoyed a challenge, and pageants "were out of my comfort zone."

Today, she looks very comfortable.

Sometimes she wears jodhpurs and boots, sometimes she wears a white coat, and sometimes she wears a bikini. But whatever she's wearing, Carrie Ann Mewha is spectacular, and we're certain you all agree.

Did somebody say nay? Aw, that was just a horse.

Good for what ails you