Morgan & Annie galloping at the recent Waredaca T3D
Name: Morgan McCue
Age: 14
Hometown: Westchester, Pennsylvania
Horse: Havannah’s Orphan Annie, “Annie”. 11 year old, 17 hand Trakehner mare.
Level of Competition: Training
How did you get started in Eventing? “Before I liked horses, I was really interested in the ocean, and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to get a whale or dolphin, so I went for the next best thing: horses. I started taking Dressage lessons when I was 5, and soon after I began doing jumper shows, and I liked it. Then I went cross country schooling and thought it was the most fun I ever had. My instructor at the time said, “Hey, try Eventing!” so I did.”
“My first event was…. a disaster. I took my pony to Plantation in an unrecognized Beginner Novice, and I fell off and had to go in the ambulance, and my pony ran back to the trailer. But that didn’t really deter me, obviously. I couldn’t stop doing it just because of that one little thing. My pony hated dressage, and he wanted to be a jumper, so we sold him to a girl in Ohio to do that. I was training with Susie Beale, and she had this really quiet dark bay TB off the track, and I fell in love. “Merlin’s Midnight Magic” and I began Eventing. We did a season of unrecognized competitions, and then the next year we did a full season of recognized Beginner Novice, and I went to Aiken, which was super exciting. We tried moving up to Novice, and it didn’t work.”
“Then Susie got Annie from Phillip Dutton, and she was experienced and big enough I wouldn’t ever outgrow her. I had to have her. Phillip had taken her to 3 preliminary events when I got her, and she was only 9. I moved up to Training level last year with her, but then she decided to stick her foot through the fence and freaked out and tore a suspensory, and was out of work for 8 months.”
“She came back this year, I went to Florida for the spring, did one Novice and won, did another one, and then moved back up to Training. I was still competing the mare that I was leasing during Annie’s injury, and I placed 1st and 2nd with both of them at Training level in the spring, which was pretty cool.”
Recent Accomplishments? “In the summer, I got really involved in Pony Club, and went to Pony Club Championships. I was unsure about how strict they are, but it was really fun. Annie got her best dressage score ever, (a 24!) and we won overall individual and team, at Training level! We won the Frank Bierman Award, for the best conditioned horse off cross country, and we went double clear.”
“Then this fall, we went to the Waredaca Training 3-Day. I warmed up too early for dressage, which resulted in Annie cantering both of our trot lengthens, and as I was saluting, and I thought it was my worst test ever. But we ended up sitting in 3rd, so I guess it wasn’t that bad. Next we did roads and tracks, and it was amazing. She doesn’t really know how to gallop, and it really helped her to do the steeplechase. She was really good on cross country, but there was a skinny keyhole at the 2nd to last fence, and we were right at the base, and she has a bad left drift, and she ducked out. We took the option and finished. I went from 3rd to 12th,, which was a huge bummer. Show jumping the next day was awesome though, she was double clear. The girl that won (Grace Fulton, the first EN’s Rising Star!), was SO nice, I’m so glad that she won.”
“I finished 3rd for JR Training Rider of the year, and the American Trakehner Association gave Annie a Reserve Champion for Training Level, which was really awesome.”
Morgan & Annie in SJ at Poplar Place
Favorite thing about eventing? “The people you meet is one of my favorite things, I LOVE meeting new Eventing people. I board at a Hunter barn, and they are so proper and pristine. Eventers are more real, more down to earth and cool. I love the cross country, obviously, because no other sport jumps solid fences at a rate of speed in a field.”
Plans for the future? “I really really really want to do Young Riders next year. I’ve been schooling Prelim for a long time, and I’ve done a few Prelim/Trainings, so I’m ready to move up and qualify for YR’s in the spring. In the long term, I definitely want to stick to the riding thing, and ideally I would like to be a professional who does this every day.”
