Ingrid Miller – A lifetime In horses
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210 – November/December, 2023
By Megan Sacia Ulrich
As a young girl growing up in the San Francisco Bay area, Ingrid Miller spent her days on horseback. She and her first horse, a bay mare named Trixie who “jigged everywhere we went,” would take off in the morning, racing through the walnut and pear orchards as fast as Trixie could go, ending up swimming in the creek or exploring the countryside for the day. The pair wouldn’t return home until nearly dusk. By age 12, Ingrid had made what she jokingly calls a “fatal mistake”–attending her first horse show.
The adventures aboard Trixie paired with Ingrid’s early riding lessons had sparked a full-on flame for horses. Soon, the family was purchasing Ingrid’s first show horse, Castle King. They didn’t travel widely to show, so attending the Grand National Show at San Francisco’s Cow Palace with classes numbering 140 entrants was always an anticipated event. In 1970, she was crowned Livestock Queen, a memory she still holds dear.
Kind-hearted, genuine, hum-ble, and generous, there’s also something a little fiery about Ingrid; so it’s no surprise that she kept fanning that horse-loving flame through the ups and downs life would bring, including in early adulthood when she and her husband, Bob, were living on a combined $40 a week while finishing college. The pair married in 1973 when Bob was 22 and Ingrid was 21. He worked at a gas station, and she worked part-time in retail. They bought their first house–a two-bedroom, one bath–for $41,000. Through determination and an undying belief in and love for each other, they made it, and have pushed their way to the top, becoming a horse industry power couple. Now residents of Arizona, the couple has been the sponsor of NSBA’s Heroes on Horses at the Sun Circuit since its beginning in 2011. They recently founded Ingrid Miller Quarter Horses LLC, coinciding with the purchase of renowned AQHA stallion VS The Fireman aka “Gronky.”
Despite “so many wonderful moments” in and out of the horse industry, Ingrid says her greatest accomplishment is her 50-year marriage to Bob and the life they’ve built together.
Click here to read the complete article
210 – November/December, 2023
