Patricia Hodder is the optimist's optimist. When she was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, she knew she would be fine.

"I never thought I was going to die," she said. "I just thought of it as a bump in the road."

And when she decided to raise money for breast cancer research, she said she would raise $50,000.

"That's exactly what we got," said Ms. Hodder, 59, of Cranberry.

Last month, she presented a check for $50,000 to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. The money was raised Oct. 6 and 7 during the Pink Ribbon Round-up, an equestrian-themed event organized by Ms. Hodder and her friends.

It all started as a joke when a few friends were visiting Ms. Hodder during her recovery from cancer surgery. She was diagnosed in 2005, and it has been a year since her last surgery.

The talk turned to the Race for the Cure, a breast-cancer fund-raising event held every year. They all agreed to participate, but Ms. Hodder was not certain she'd be well enough to walk.

"I said we should take our horses," she recalled. An equestrian and horse lover, she owns five horses on her seven-acre property in Cranberry.

Once the laughing stopped over the prospect of adding horses -- and their waste -- to the Race for the Cure's 35,000 participants, the conversation turned more serious.

Why not hold a separate breast cancer fund-raiser focused on horses?

"We thought the equestrian community is very passionate, very generous, and has not been tapped into as far as a fund-raising event," Ms. Hodder said.

That conversation, in February of this year, was the beginning of the Pink Ribbon Roundup.

They decided on a two-part event, with a Western-themed party called the Corral for the Cure on a Friday evening and a three-hour trail ride through North Park the following morning.

Money was raised by selling tickets for the party, holding a ticket auction and conducting a raffle for a three-year lease on a 2007 Lexus donated by Lexus of North Hills, which also hosted the party.

Entry fees also were charged for riders, who were asked to collect donations for the cause. All riders had to have their own horses.

By the end of the weekend, the event met its goal of raising $50,000 for the Braddock-based Pittsburgh Affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

The Pink Ribbon Roundup made some local history for the foundation.

"This is the largest independent fund-raising event in Komen Pittsburgh's history," said Jo Ann Meier, executive director of the foundation's Pittsburgh affiliate. "We are very grateful to Patricia and the entire team for this incredible effort."

The group is already planning next year's fund-raiser, which again will be held in October, breast cancer awareness month.

The goal: $75,000.