Jenna Morrill has always loved animals.

The 12-year-old from Holden has cats and a rabbit, and like most girls her age, she has a soft spot for horses.

So it wasn’t much of a stretch for her to be converted to a horse aficionado after Jenny Hannigan moved here from Houlton about four years ago and became a good friend.

“She was crazy about horses and got me into them,” Jenna Morrill explained. “Then my dad got me a horse about a year ago who was supposed to race, but got an infection in her neck and couldn’t anymore.”

Less than two years after first meeting Hannigan, Morrill has been treated to something her more equine-experienced friend can only dream about.

Morrill – one of 10 youths who took part in the U.S. Trotting Association’s five-day Harness Horse Youth Foundation camp at Bangor Raceway last month – was chosen to represent Bangor Raceway as one of five kids picked to compete in the Harness Racing Youth League exhibition race at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J., last Saturday.

“They came to me and asked if we’d be interested in going to the Meadowlands. They chose her for her all-around participation and attitude,” said Ron Morrill.

Jenna and her father drove to East Rutherford and enjoyed a three-day, all-expenses-paid stay at the Meadowlands Complex.

“They treated us like royalty. We went to the Harness Racing Hall of Fame in Goshen, N.J., she was in the Hambletonian Parade Saturday, they put us up in a motel, took care of our meals… All we had to do was find our way down there.”

If that wasn’t already enough, Jenna Morrill got to drive with Brian Sears, one of the most successful harness racing drivers in the country with $6,000,000 in winnings this season alone. Sears was paired with Morrill for the youth race, which was run before the start of the Meadowlands’ regular Saturday afternoon schedule. She drove Black Monday and finished third in the five-horse, half-mile race.

“Meeting Brian Sears was the most exciting thing, but the whole trip was really cool,” Jenna said. “I had a great time at the Hall of Fame and museum too. I liked the computer-simulated harness racing game they had with seats that move. It feels like you’re in an actual race.”

And then she did get in an actual race. Not bad for a girl who wasn’t even sure she wanted to take part in Bangor Raceway’s youth program, which teaches participants everything from blacksmithing to the training, exercising, feeding, and driving of horses.

“I didn’t think I’d like it that much because I wasn’t too sure about the sport, but I really liked the racing,” she said. “I came in last place when I raced in Bangor.”

She enjoyed it so much, she wants to do it again next year as a volunteer.

“You can’t repeat the program once you’ve gone though it, but maybe I can help out,” she said.

Now that the program’s experience is behind her, the field hockey player and aspiring actress who gave up ice hockey for horses is riding, taking care of, and feeding carrots to her own horse Willow, who stays in Donny Bishop’s stables at Bangor Raceway.

“I’m not too sure where I’m going to go, but I’m hoping I have a future in the world of horses,” she said.