Above left, Taylor Ferguson of East Brunswick and her horse Star Lantern. Above right, State Board of Agriculture President Roger Kumpel (l) and New Jersey Secretary of Agriculture Douglas H. Fisher (r) honored Taylor Ferguson, pictured with her father Robert, at the New Jersey State Agricultural Convention in East Brunswick on Feb. 9. EAST BRUNSWICK — Middlesex County may not be the hotbed of the state’s horse industry, but for the second year in a row a county teenager has been named New Jersey Equestrian of the Year.

In 2009 the honor went to Stacey Butewicz of South River. This year, Taylor Ferguson of East Brunswick received the title over nine other finalists at the New Jersey Bred Equine Breeders Awards Luncheon, held Jan. 31 in Easthampton. The Equestrian of the Year is selected on the basis of poise, personality, ability to communicate, and knowledge of horses, according to the state Department of Agriculture.

Ferguson, 16, will spend the year making appearances at various functions and advocating for the state’s equine industry.

Ferguson, a sophomore at East Brunswick High School and a straight-A student, said she already knows exactly where she wants to go to college and what she wants to do. Her plan is to attend Clemson University in South Carolina, where she will study equine business and then open boarding and training facility in that state. She also plans to take her horse, Star Lantern, with her when she goes off to college.

In the essay required for the contest, Ferguson, who began riding at age 5, wrote that the hobby made her realize she could accomplish anything she set out to do. It has also taught her responsibility and discipline.

“Many kids were flip-flopping from sport to sport, or whatever was the coolest thing to do, but the solid ground of this sport made me very independent,” she wrote.

The Standardbred Pleasure Horse Organization of New Jersey (SPHO-NJ) sponsored Ferguson in the Equestrian of the Year competition. The organization’s vice president, Helene Gregory of East Windsor, came to know Ferguson over the years and recalled that the teen was a young kid when she first joined her organization.

“She came with Star Lantern, a skinny, scruffy-looking standardbred that she clearly loved dearly. Over the three to four years they have been in the club, both Taylor and Star have grown — literally,” she said. “Taylor is now a beautiful young lady and Star has built up to be a stunning old gray man.”

The hard-knocking horse, now 18, had raced 326 times, earning over $400,000.

“We thought that an older horse with his race record was going to be very hard to get some weight on, but Taylor never gave up,” Gregory said. “She asked questions to a lot of us about how to feed him and keep him healthy and comfortable, and she also studies a lot and does research about how to best take care of her horse.”

The two have done very well at horse shows, and Gregory said the old horse is pampered by an entourage that includes Ferguson’s father Bob and a lot of her friends.

“Although Star is not the friendliest horse — he is actually quite a grump — she just laughs at his antics. He would never do anything to hurt his Taylor,” she said.

Gregory added that the SPHO-NJ is very proud to have mentored Ferguson —who is also a member of the Middlesex County 4- H Golden Spurs Horse Club — through her young years of horse showing, and hopes she and Star will continue to be with them for many years to come.

“It is horses and people like them that makes the hard work of being an officer in a nonprofit organization worth it,” she said.