By Ashley Khakshouri

Lucy Davis ’11 will participate in the Young Master League Championships in Frankfurt, Germany today. The top 30 riders ages 25 and younger from Europe compete all year to qualify for these championships. This is the first year that the Young Master League has opened two wild card spots to the United States Equestrian Federation. Davis found out she was chosen in late November as one of the wild cards.

“I was at a show in New York and the United States Equestrian Federation approached me and told me I had been chosen. Then they sent me a letter confirming everything,” Davis said. “It was a really exciting moment for her.”

“I am very lucky to get to compete on an international level and I really enjoy competing in these pressurized situations,” Davis said. “It’s exhilarating. Basically riding is just my passion and I really love it.”

Davis and her family will be in Germany for a week. She hopes to do well enough in the Championship to represent the United States in a positive way, she said.

“You always want to win but really what’s important is to be consistent and try to always be in the game,” Davis said.

“It’s a little bit scary because I am the only one representing the U.S.”

Davis will be taking one of her horses to Germany with her.

“It will be a great experience and I will be able to see a different culture which is more based on equestrian and it’ll be really fun to have a lot more spectators.”

Davis began equestrian lessons when she was five years old. It was natural for her to get involved, she said.

“My grandfather is involved with horse racing so my family has always been around horses,” Davis said.

When my mom moved to LA she started riding and so I grew up around horses and that’s how I got into it,” Davis said.

Since then, Davis has been training six days a week. She has a few stalls at her house in Brentwood but most of her horses are stabled in Lake View Terrace.

“The hardest part of equestrian is communicating with your horse. You have to know how and what they are feeling at all times. You need to feel if they are tired, strong, injured, etc. The communication is hard, especially if you tend to be impatient like me,” Davis said.

The highlights of her riding career have been winning gold and silver medals at the North American Youth Competition this summer in Lexington, Ky. and last summer in Parker, Colo.