Murphy to Manteo: Finding new adventures, historic detours, and the soul of North Carolina on the state’s longest highway: U.S. Route 64. Read the series.

The young cowgirl on the glossy bay mare is composed, her back straight and proud, as she and her horse emerge from the gate and into the arena. Outside, the morning sun is already blinding. It’s bright in here, too, under the fluorescent lights, but the coliseum’s green stadium seats are empty, and the air is cool.

Just a teenager, she’s wearing jeans, boots, and a black T-shirt, and beneath her helmet, her long, dark hair is pulled into a ponytail. She and her mount face three red-white-and-blue barrels set up in a triangle that stretches across most of the arena’s floor, and they take a relaxed, walking turn around each of them — first the right barrel, then across to the left one, then the distant middle point — before heading back out through the gate they entered.

Young riders make use of the practice rounds at the Senator Bob Martin Eastern Agricultural Center. Hours later, they’ll compete in the 2025 Southeast Youth Extravaganza. photograph by Chris Rogers

Almost as soon as they’ve melted into the dazzling light outside, they’re back. Now they trot the course, steady and calm. Now they canter, and the rider guides her horse in two or three loops around each barrel, a little tighter now, and faster.

On their fourth entrance, the cowgirl and her horse fly through the gate, kicking up dirt in their wake. They quickly circle the first barrel, then pick up speed. “Yes, ma’am!” the rider shouts as she steers her horse around the second barrel in a lightning-fast turn. They race for the final barrel, and the horse banks around it so steeply that it looks like she might tip over — but no, she’s made it. The rider urges her into an all-out gallop back to the gate, the thundering of hooves rising to meet the music that’s blaring.

The pair walks the course one last time. “Good girl,” the rider tells her horse, and both of them breathe, soaking up another few moments in the empty arena. Tonight — the first of the Southeast Youth Extravaganza barrel racing competition — the chairs won’t be empty, and the stakes will be higher. But this cowgirl will be ready.

• • •

For nearly 30 years, the Senator Bob Martin Eastern Agricultural Center off U.S. Highway 64 in Williamston has been a place where cowgirls, cowboys, and countless others chase their dreams. It’s named for the late State Senator R.L. “Bob” Martin, a former farmer and railroad official from Bethel who served nine terms in the North Carolina Senate starting in 1985. The complex’s red-roofed stables, practice rings, arenas, and meeting rooms are part of the North Carolina Department of Agriculture. It’s a popular venue for events like ATV races, motocross, and truck and tractor pulls, but it mainly hosts horse shows and rodeos in the 108,000-square-foot indoor coliseum.

Susan Tyre photograph by Chris Rogers

Yet for Manager Susan Tyre, the center is about much more than any one show (and, considering it’s booked an average of 39 weeks of the year, there are a lot of them). Instead, every event, every competition, is a chance to share a place that supports and celebrates agriculture in North Carolina.

Growing up in a farming family in Wilson County, Tyre was instilled with a reverence for the land. On tractor rides with her dad to visit their fields of row crops, she learned how foundational their industry is in this state and the world beyond.

“My dad would tell me that everything revolves around the soil,” Tyre says. “Everything depends on farmers and ranchers feeding the world. Without them — and our agricultural industry — we don’t have clothes; we don’t have food.”

As a child, she witnessed firsthand the challenges facing farmers — how they were at the mercy of crop diseases, weather, and the economy. But she also witnessed their tenacity: “There’s a toughness, a stubbornness that you can’t get out,” she says. “They never give up.”

“We’re more than just horse shows or tractor pulls,” says Manager Susan Tyre of the agricultural center. “We want people to know this is their facility.” photograph by Chris Rogers

She studied animal science and agriculture education at NC State. After working for several years as a 4-H agent in Martin County, her dreams came true, like so many cowgirls before her, at the Bob Martin Agricultural Center. Now, Tyre’s team works with groups like the Martin County Soil and Water Conservation District to teach fourth graders about farming. They host a horse camp for kids. They promote the NCDA’s Got to Be NC Festival, its commodity groups, and its nutrition education programs.

“To think of myself doing anything outside of agriculture — I can’t,” Tyre says, shaking her head. “I’m extremely passionate about making sure people know how important this industry is.”

Riders and their horses gear up for the competition at the 2025 Southeast Youth Extravaganza. photograph by Chris Rogers

And every time the complex fills with spectators, she knows there’s someone in the crowd who’s here for the first time. Each show represents a chance to welcome these newcomers. A chance for a child to feel a spark. A chance that they might come back for a livestock, poultry, or agriculture show. That they might see themselves, someday, as a farmer — or as someone, like Tyre, who plants seeds of industry support.

“I think about how, in another 10 or 20 years, I’m going to see the grandchildren of people that I was here with, and how it’s a cycle that never ends,” she says. “And, well, I hope it never ends.”

• • •

Back outside, young riders are steering horses — chestnut, pinto, dapple-gray — around practice rings. In the distance, trailers are lining up; stables are filling out. Later, the seats in the coliseum will start to fill up, too. Competitors and their horses will race around barrels at what seems like breakneck speed, most completing their runs in just 15 to 17 seconds. But right now, “Mustang Sally” echoes over the grounds, and another cowgirl trots into the arena.

Senator Bob Martin Eastern Agricultural Center
2900 NC Highway 125 South
Williamston, NC 27892
(252) 792-5802
ncagr.gov/divisions/marketing/farmers-markets-agricultural-centers/senator-bob-martin-eastern-agricultural-center-williamston

More to Explore: Learn about horses in North Carolina — where to see them and where to ride them — at ourstate.com/horses.