UNH Horse Trials: To Ride, or Not To Ride

Last month I submitted an application for Alison (my trainer) to ride Ruby in the UNH Horse Trials on July 19th. Our entry had been on the wait list because I was a day late getting the application in the mail. Well, just the other day I noticed that the entry has moved from the "Wait" section and is now an official entry. That's all fine and good, but Alison has been insisting for the past couple of weeks that I'm ready to ride her in this myself. We talked about it a little bit more today and she again said that she thinks I'm capable (probably especially so on a horse like Ruby, because she's so honest about jumping). I told her that maybe I can do it, if I can just stop throwing up long enough from the nerves!

If I do ride, this will be my first sanctioned event. Certainly my first on Ruby, but it may be my first on any horse. I know that I competed in a number of events (and other types of horse shows) many, many years ago in my first riding life, but I don't really know if any of them were sanctioned. It was so long ago, things were different back then, certainly the divisions are different, not sure if the event rating system was different too. In addition to it being my first sanctioned, it will be a step up in division, which means higher jumps, and probably somewhat more complicated stadium and cross-country courses than what I had experienced in the previous two 3-phase competitions that I've done. Don't get me wrong, most would still consider it a "weenie" division, but it is a small leap from the division we started out at our first event back in May.

So, I have to decide what I'm going to do and decide pretty soon -- the event is only a couple of weeks away. I'm already freaking out a bit with nerves -- ACK!