By Steve Bigham

MORRIS – Jessica Ulrich has been selected to represent the Connecticut Quarter Horse Youth Association at the Youth World Show to be held in Fort Worth, Texas from August 3 through August 13.

The 18-year-old Morris woman will be riding her horse Expertello (aka “Crispin”), a six-year-old quarter horse and will show in Equitation Over Fences, Hunter Hack, Hunter Under Saddle, Working Hunter and Hunt Seat Equitation.

Ulrich, a 1999 graduate of Nonnewaug High in Woodbury, plans to begin college in January. For now she is working at Dan’s Frontier tack shop in Woodbury and at a law office in Southbury. With her free time, she rides – a passion she has had since she was seven.

“It’s just in my blood. I do it all the time,” Ulrich said this week. “My mom (Carol Heidenreich) used to take lessons and when she started riding again she introduced me to riding. I was lucky enough to get my own horse right after I started riding and I’ve had a horse ever since.”

Ulrich will be making her first trip to Texas where she will be competing against some of the finest young riders in the country.

“I don’t know what to expect. No one in Connecticut has ever done that well there, so I’m just hoping to just go have fun,” she said.

But if Ulrich’s past successes are any indication, she and her teammates will be coming home with more than just good memories.

“We competed in the East Coast Championship show in Virginia in April and we did really well,” she said. “Everyone says don’t go to Virginia and expect to come away with a ribbon. We ended up with three firsts, two seconds and a couple of thirds.”

Ulrich says her favorite event is the equitation over fences because “it takes a lot of concentration and it is not necessarily the best horse that wins. It takes more skill. The horse has to be good, but I am judged on form.”

The Connecticut team consists of six members.

While in Texas, Ulrich will visit her best friend who now lives in Oklahoma.