By Corey Norval

Many girls dream of having a horse when they are little, and juniors Porshe Miller and Sidney Froistad definitely made that dream come true. Miller started riding horses when she was 12 years old, and Froistad started taking lessons when she was seven.

“Sidney had a horse, and I was like ‘you know what that sounds like a lot of fun,’ and that’s when we got Reba, my horse, which started my love for horses,” Miller said.

Miller’s mom used to ride her own horse when she was younger, so she knew about horses in general and told her if she wanted to get a horse she had to learn more about them before she actually got one.

“I had to do research and work hard to get my own horse,” Miller said. “My mom has always taught me to work hard for what I want.”

When Miller got her first horse, Reba, her horse was 20 years old and was starved. Reba weighed 500 pounds when she should have weighed 1,000 pounds. Miller’s moth- er had her help take care of the horse to be healthy enough to ride, and then she began riding. She got another horse named Diamond, who was seven, after her horse Reba passed away.

Miller now owns 3 horses: Gus which is the oldest horse, her mom’s horse Xander, and a yearling horse named Flash.

Froistad shares the same amount of love for horses as Miller.

“I loved horses from a really young age,” Froistad said. She watched a lot of shows and movies that involved horses and was fascinated with them. Later she started tak- ing lessons and became more involved with horseback riding.

“I started riding my current horse in 7th or 8th grade, and then we bought my horse last summer and I have been competing and training this horse for almost four years now.” Occasionally, she rides and competes with some of her friends horses.

When Miller started riding, she was just interested in taking lessons and learning more about horses. Then she grew into liking a form of English riding known as Dres- sage. She became very interested in Dressage and started taking lessons, going to shows, traveling, and more. Later on she decided to stop because it was too much pressure and decided to take on Barrel racing.

Sidney is the President of her 4H club and rides horses competitively. She started taking horse riding lessons. Froistad leased her first horse when she was in fifth grade and started to compete around same time.

“4H is like a big part of horseback riding, so my club competes at the super fair and I went to state for horse riding last year which is in Grand Island,” Froistad said.

Other than riding horses together, Sidney and Porshe also take the same classes and are in the same clubs, such as DECA.

“Oh yeah, we do a lot together,” Sidney said. “She’s my best friend.”