More Congress Thoughts...

So after my excellent ride on Ally last night... I can't squelch the the tempting thought that is taking over my mind... novice amateur HUS at Congress. The more I think about it, I think, why not? This is probably my last year in the novice in the HUS. If I'm going to start showing my HUS stallion, Chance, plus work on getting qualified next year, I will be pointed out by the end of the year. Part of me wants to hold off to "retain" that status for one more year... but the rest of me says, I need to work on my goals of Chance and getting qualified. Therefore, this would make this the last year I am ever eligible for novice HUS at the Congress... so shouldn't I take advantage?

Here are the pros and the cons, so far I'd say they are evenly spilt with with pros having a slight advantage. I'll begin with the cons.

Cons:
I just bought this mare. We have not had time to establish a "relationship" yet, nor do I know how she behaves a the shows.
She has only been to a few shows in her life.
She is green at the HUS, all of her training has been WP. Therefore, we need to work on moving her up into the bridle and getting a nice, slow legged long trot, where as now she just wants to jog and speed up her jog, as all of her training has been strictly jogging for WP.
I will have to focus extra hard on preparing her for the HUS, so her WP might go backwards.
I only have less than a month to prepare and organize getting her to Congress, where we will be a late entry.
I will have to spend a lot more time at Congress than I had anticipated. The original plan was to just fly in for a couple days for Mocha's green WP class, then fly back for his JR WP and Tator's longe line class. This would keep me from freezing TOO much, losing TOO much sleep, and getting sick.
She is 15.2 hands.

Pros:
I just bought the mare, but we are getting along fantastically and I have already have had some of the best rides of my life on her. She is push button and super easy.
She may be smaller but she has a KILLER canter, and is going to be a lot more consistant and uniform of a package than a lot of the bigger horses, especially in the novice HUS.
Although we only have a month to prepare, the only real thing we need to work on is collecting her at the long trot. This is one of my strong suits and we've already made progress in a couple days, much less a month. As far as training issues go, it could be a LOT worse.
If we can get through the class, she should really be at least top ten quality, so I can go out in my last year of novice am HUS with a bang.
We could also possibly do the novice am equitation there, so long as there is no lead change. It would make the trip more worth it, than for just one class.
It would be excellent practice for getting me ready to show Chance at the big shows in the amateur next year.
I have a couple shows I can take her to before Congress to see how she takes them.

Honestly, the biggest con to me and the only thing that is making me hesitant, is that she's only been to a few horse shows, and now Congress? I don't want to rush it and freak her or myself out, nor put myself at risk if she doesn't take it well. However, I would be getting her there a week and a half before her class so if she's going to adjust, that seems like enough time, and plenty of time to get her in the Celeste or Coliseum every day, and ride her in all the traffic. There are two and three year old horses there that surely have no more experience than she has, and it would be their first Congress as well.

When I'm thinking about this subject, and when I lean towards the chickening out side - not enough time, not an experienced enough horse, too long to be gone from home, too cold, too wet, too nervous, too much work and stress... I think about the possible reward, and how long I've been waiting for a horse like this to show... as well as possibly my last opportunity, ever, to show in the novice am HUS at Congress.

Carrie Underwood's song "Wasted" always runs through my mind during situations like this...:

I don't wanna spend my life jaded
Waiting to wake up one day and find
That I've let all these years go by
Wasted

I don't wanna' keep on wishing, missing
The still of the morning, the color of the night
I ain't spending no more time
Wasted

It always gives me a boost to "buck up", and take the leap, instead of always wondering what could have been.

What would you do?

~Amy

P.S. I'm going to try to get a video of her today and put it online!