Interview with Whitney Millirons

Working with horses was my dream job when I was a child. I have a keen interest in thoroughbred horse racing and the world of American Saddlebred Horse showing. I think it’s because horses are beautiful, although most people don’t think so. They’re very intelligent. Most of my life I spent working with them. Feeding, and cleaning stalls.

When asked what her favorite moments were, she replied “Going to the state fair horse show and working at the state for horse shows. That was one, and then having my own show horse that was the other.”

When I was seven my uncle had a couple of horses and we went to his place up in Delaware County for a family barbecue, and he took me for a ride on of them and that was it. I’ve been crazy about them ever since.

I think there will be no Triple Crown this year, particularly since the jockey that was on the winning horse at the Kentucky Derby has chosen not to ride the horse again in the premium. So I don’t think there will be a Triple Crown this year.

My grandmother ignored [my love for horses] because it wasn’t what she wanted for me. It wasn’t something they understood. My grandmother was the most influential person in my life, simply because my grandmother was an advocate for me. She was all about me. I was her only grandchild and she wanted to make sure that I was taken care of at anyone’s expense (laugh). She didn’t let anyone stand in her way to make sure I was taken care of.

I think one of the major things that changed my life was my mother. My mother was a borderline schizophrenic and we didn’t know what to expect when we came home everyday. I learned from a very young age how to gauge people’s emotions very quickly. Umm, that’s one aspect. For me, it’s been more of a positive thing simply because by being able to gauge people’s emotions, especially people who have problems you can try to get to the root of the problem before it becomes something that’s major and out of control. If there’s a problem, before it becomes major, then you could go ahead and get it taken care of.

I think people have a tendency to take life for granted. I don’t think people spend very much time looking at the poor person on the street, or the person who is seriously ill. You know, I don’t think they took enough time to think “Hey, in a split second that could be me.”

I think America spends too much time looking at the way things are on television and magazines and trying to recreate that. You know, everybody talks about having so much credit card debt. There’s so much credit card debt because people always want the latest gadgets, and tennis shoes and the clothes and the houses, because that’s what it’s like on television. And, you know, it’s not, umm, other countries that are exceeding us as far as education aren’t focused on those things.




I think the American people have begun to be conditioned to get something for nothing. Umm, “Here, put down 1,000 dollars today and you’ll have two million tomorrow.” Well, that’s not true. 150 years ago when people were opening up the American West it was hard work, and it wasn’t something for nothing; it was years of hard work. Now-a-days everyone wants to be able to do it but not do much to get it.

Well, I mean, umm. First of all, we’re one of the most overweight nations in the world. That’s something right there. We don’t make our kids exercise. Not even in school anymore do we make them exercise, number one. And number two, like I said, people don’t want to go out and do the hard work, you know? Umm, “Let somebody else do that.”

It just seems that a college education can be taken for granted. Umm, but on the other hand there are so many, there are even less, for instance African-American students taking advantage of that than there were 30 years ago.

It’s really funny because you hear all this talk about the environment, particularly with college students. They’re all screaming and hollering about the environment and if you take a walk down at campus and you walk down the fraternity house and the sorority houses and you see beer cans everywhere and garbage everywhere and trash everywhere and it’s like “So you’re worried about your environment but you don’t really care about how you live.” It doesn’t really make sense.

I lived down here when I was 20 and living here now I really don’t see a difference. I think the only thing that is different in what I see is that children today and teenagers take things far more seriously than we did. Two little boys just hung themselves because they were being bullied. When I was kid being bullied was just part of going to school. You sucked it up, you know. You didn’t come home at 10-11 years old and hang yourself. You worry more about global warming and the environment.

When I was growing up, first of all we weren’t allowed to sound things out. What do they call it? Phonetics? Whatever they call it. You know, you learned by writing it over and over and over again. You know, you’re feelings weren’t spared. You weren’t allowed to suck your thumb in class. You know, even from first grade you weren’t allowed to do that. You know, uh, I could vividly remember being in 1st grade and my friend and I were at the top of the slide when the recess bell rang and instead of coming down the steps we slid down. We almost got paddled for that. No seriously, we did. And we were in the 1st grade, so , now-a-days kids are told “that’s okay,” and we don’t tell them no, we just explain things to them. Uh uh, that’s not how we were taught. We were told “NO!”
I think the American Dream changes everyday. Not just throughout lifetimes, it changes everyday, particularly in the economic climate that we’re in now. You know, last year or the year before for some people the American Dream, they were already living the American Dream, you know. Now, today, there are people who have no idea what the next day is going to bring for them. So it’s kind of hard to say, it’s, hmm, what word do I want to say? For me, the American Dream . . . it’s a misnomer.