Slave girl chosen by dragon master to join academy in space

Question

I am looking for a young adult fantasy / sci-fi book written somewhere between the sixties and the nineties. At the start, a girl is woken up early in the morning by one of her family members. She's a slave. She makes bread and somewhere along the line they came to town square with a student, a circle, and a dragon master who came and chose the kids that were accepted into the academy. It was supposedly very dangerous to train dragons. One of the ways the dragon master decided who was brave enough was that he lifted up each eyelid one by one. It's set on an Earth colony and every so often, when one planet gets closer to another, dragons come over to attack, which is why the colony trains their dragons.

No, it's not Anne McCaffrey or Jane Yolen's Hearts Blood.

Answer 1

It could be Joust by Mercedes Lackey.

Vetch is a young slave who was taken from his master by a Dragon Rider, Ari, to tends his dragon. Vetch showed no fear when Vetch had to tend Ari's dragon. It is extremely dangerous to tend dragons. The dragons are captured when they are young and never become tame. Ari's dragon is unique: Ari stole a dragon egg and brought up the dragon who hatched. Ari took the place of the mother dragon. This is too much work for nobles who are of sufficient rank to qualify as a Dragon Rider. But Ari was an exception; he made his idea work. He needs someone to help him care for his dragon. The only problem is that Vetch is a citizen of the country Ari's people are fighting. Vetch learns Ari's techniques and begins to raise his own dragon from the egg. He is found out eventually and ...

It's a four book series: Joust, Alta, Sanctuary, and Aerie.