Schuyler went on a lot of outings in his 35 years. He went to a lot of horse shows and competitions, but we will cover that on a separate page. He also went on a lot of trail rides. He was definitely a steady Eddie when it came to these outings. When Dylan was younger, around six years old, he used to accompany me on Hunter paces and trail rides. He would ride Schuyler while I rode a bigger horse. Obviously, Schuyler took a lot more effort to keep up with the bigger horse, so Dylan and I would play a fun little game called “ketchup and mustard.” Any time Dylan would fall too far behind on Schuyler, I would shout out, “Ketchup!“, And he would shout back, “Mustard!“.
Another field trip that was a lot of fun with Schuyler was when we would take him driving to local restaurants like Bojangles, McDonald’s, and Dunkin’ Donuts. These places are only about a five-minute car ride from the farm, but it would take Schuyler about 20 minutes to get there pulling his cart. Once there, he would stand in the drive-through line, just like the other cars. As soon as the car in front of him moved up, he would also move up and stop when they stopped. I never even had to cue him. He knew exactly what to do. It was always a lot of fun to watch the reactions of the other drivers, especially the folks in the drive-through windows. He would often get treats from the drive-through window people as well, like donuts and french fries!
In all his years, he only did one parade – the Durham Christmas parade sometime back in the late 90s or early 2000s. His only complaint was that he was right in front of a marching band with a thunderous drum line. He threw a pretty big fit about that, but once they moved him around, he was perfect for the rest of the parade!
