Shocking Emotions …

My chest tightens as I sit outside the arena on a big horse with an inky black mane and tail. His coat glistens under the lights in the main stadium, with the slightest sheen of sweat from our warm up a few minutes prior. I feel a hand on the back of my calf, “Karlie are you ready?” …. Not even a little bit, I hear myself whisper in my head but I look down at my trainer and smile. “Yes Ma’am” I tell her as I hear my name over the loud speaker as next in the arena. My vision immediately narrows to only seeing the ground floor of the arena as I walk in and I take deep breath and close my calf around my horse as the buzzer…