LAMBERTVILLE -- A lot of 16-year-olds taking Advanced Placement courses in high school are busy enough just keeping up with their studies, but not Jenny Miller.
The Notre Dame Academy junior and Lambertville resident has achieved a measure of fame in equestrian circles as one of the top young riders in the country. After all, she's been riding for eight years.
In the third week of October, she'll be in Oklahoma City competing in the Grand National and World Championship Morgan Horse Show in the under-17-year-old category.
Riders can't just enter this show with their horses. They have to qualify. Jenny qualified by winning a slew of youth-rider competitions, including the American Morgan Horse Association's Western Seat Medal and Western Seat Equitation Championship in Columbus in June.
Last month at the Buckeye Morgan Horse Show, in Wilmington, Ohio, she won enough first-place ribbons to cover her bedroom wall: Hunter Pleasure Youth Champion, Western Equitation Champion, Western Pleasure Champion, and Hunter Equitation Champion.
In July, she competed in the New England Morgan Regional Horse Show in Northampton, Mass., where she took first in Western seat equitation and second in the English pleasure class. At the same show, she was Western Pleasure Youth Champion for ages 21 and under. She also finished second in the western equitation competition.
"This was the second biggest Morgan horse show," Jenny explained between classes at Notre Dame. "That was the most exciting. It's so competitive, but it reflects how you'll do at the nationals."
Jenny boards her two geldings at Morgan Valley Farm in Tecumseh, where she can be found after school several times a week. During summer break she was there virtually every day caring for and riding the horses, named Apollo and George.
Lori Marino-Beasley, one of her trainers, said Jenny's love of horses is unqualified and sets her apart from most other young riders.
"She loves anything to do with horses. It doesn't matter if she's cleaning stalls. She loves everything about her horses. It's from the heart," she said.
Jenny, the daughter of Beth and Jeff Miller, acknowledges that horses are the passion of her young life.
"It's hard to understand unless you ride horses," she said. "But you really develop a connection with them. My horses have personalities. They're very willing. They want to please you."
Horses will always be part of her life, she said, but they are not what she wants to do professionally some day. She has her sights set on being a cardiologist and is taking Advanced Placement chemistry with an eye toward eventually going to medical school.
Before the Massachusetts horse show in July, she attended a medical conference in Boston for students aspiring to be physicians, and the experience confirmed her interest in the medical profession.
For the time being, however, she is thinking about the Oklahoma City show next month. She admits to getting a few butterflies as the date approaches.
"It's going to be really competitive. I've met a lot of my competitors, but I haven't met all of them. They're from all over. I think that what's cool about this year is that I'm one of them. I'm one of the top competitors. That confidence really shows when you're riding," she explained.
Ms. Marino-Beasley, who will be there with Jenny, Apollo, and George, predicts the teen will acquit herself well.
"She has been working so hard, and she has two really nice horses," she said.
First Published September 7, 2011, 10:47 a.m.
