BY HILLARY MORROW
Show season started last weekend with the BEST season opener at the PG Equestrian Center. We are lucky to live in an area of the country with more regional and local shows than we have time for, held at facilities with wonderful footing and real bathrooms (iykyk).
I took the weekend off from showing Patch so I could focus on Sean’s season debut on a new pony, Princess Leia, one of our amazing and kind schoolies. While waking Sean for school some mornings can be tough, the 4:30 AM wake-up call had Sean up and dressed in less than 10 minutes. Breakfast for him, coffee for me, and we were out the door to get Leia ready.
By 5:45, Leia had been fed and groomed and was ready to load in her leather halter. The truck and trailer were ready with shavings, hay, and water. Sean took the lead rope and a peppermint, loaded his pony, called to make sure I had the butt bar up, clipped the ties to the halter, pushed up the ramp, and loaded himself into his spot in the backseat. At 10, he’s more experienced at hauling horses than many adults I know!
My parents were not horse people. They were financially and emotionally supportive of my crazy, but they stopped short of buying a truck and trailer. I dreamed in high school about a GMC Z71 2500 in navy blue with a gray interior, hauling my 2 + 1 down the midwestern highways to Gordyville and Ledges. Alas, I had a blue Ford Escort hatchback that I could fit my Sportote tack trunk in… not exactly for hauling.
For my 47th birthday, we bought Millie. Millie is my 2023 Ford F150 in sparkly beige, short for Mid Life Crisis. Not long after we brought Millie home, a friend clued me in to a steal of a deal on a two-horse bumper pull just over the Pennsylvania line. With a check in hand, I took a friend with far more experience using hitches (my general contractor), and I brought home my new trailer.
While my rig isn’t a 2 + 1 pulled by a GMC, I love Mille, the trailer, and the freedom it provides. The trailer is extra long, extra tall, and extra wide with plenty of room in the nose for all the “stuff” that goes into horse showing. It took a few months to figure out what worked and what didn’t.
The hay mangers that came with the trailer are preferable to hay nets, so those were an easy decision. An over-the-door organizer on each side put grooming supplies, first aid for horse and rider, and the 743 bungee cords and double-ended snaps in easy reach at all times. My little Sportote trunk, yes, the same one I’ve had since I first started driving to shows in my Escort, fits perfectly underneath the tack hanging from the racks I’ve installed. There are even solar-powered fans on each side to keep the horses cool. Setting up my trailer and organizing it before each show brings me a little frisson of pleasure each time. Barbie never had it so good!
Sean and I have listened to most of the Rick Riordan books together on our way to and from horse shows with Patch in tow. We traveled north to McDonough and Swan Lake, south to the PG Equestrian Center and Culpeper and as far west as WEC Ohio for two weeks last winter. I haul to a friend’s several times a month for lessons in her private indoor, and have tried some trail riding for the first time in years as well. Patch pretty much loads and unloads himself, preferring Sean to take him in and out over me. My feelings are only a little hurt, it’s fine.
I know how lucky I am in so many ways: a horse, a truck and trailer and a sport I share with my son. I board and train with people I respect and adore and get to horse show much more than I would without Millie and the trailer.
Right now, Sean thinks this is the life most horse kids have but I know better—he’s living my childhood dream. Watching him lead each horse carefully into the rig, wait for the butt bar to be secured, hook up the crossties, and administer the required good pony peppermint makes me more proud even than watching him ride. I wonder when he will be tall enough to learn to park the trailer. That’s the only thing I’m still not too confident about!
I hope someday, Sean has great memories of our road trips, snacks, and time together hauling around the mid-Atlantic to shows; the freedom of the truck and trailer has allowed me so much quality time with my kid!
Hillary Morrow lives with her husband, sons, dogs and cat in Columbia, Maryland. When not at the barn riding her TB hunter, Patch, or grooming for her son and his IEA teammates, Hillary runs Fairchild Educational Services, a full-service tutoring firm.
