Tomorrow morning, I head off on my much-anticipated trip to Kentucky for the Alltech World Equestrian Games. We’ve been talking about this trip since I first started with Horse&Rider almost six months ago!

Getting ready for this event reminds me a lot of the first time reining was featured at the 1999 United States Equestrian Federation Championships in Gladstone, New Jersey. All of us media types lucky enough to attend that milestone event were like little kids waiting for Christmas. But instead of chattering about gifts, we went on and on about the horses (Whizard Jac won that year with Mike Flarida in the saddle; Mike’s brother Shawn is competing for Team USA this year), the ground (in New Jersey, it was an unfamiliar surface that was almost like gravel; the ground for WEG has been painstakingly prepared by NRHA ground expert Jim Kaiser), and–most important–what to wear (I bought a new rain jacket last night, per suggestions offered by Equisearch.com blogger Jim Wofford).

I’m really excited to bring the action to those of you who can’t travel to Lexington. Look for a couple blog posts each day, and follow my regular updates on the H&R Facebook page. If you’re at the games, be sure to stop me and say hi! I’ll be wearing my brand-new Vogt Horse&Rider name tag!