By Tori Kistler
Portraits by Becky Henderson
Grandma’s quilt, warm bread fresh from the oven, a handmade card—some things are just better made from scratch. But what about a career? Is it better to have everything handed to you on a silver platter, or to invest years of your life creating the future you dream of?
“When I started, I didn’t have a double-ended snap to my name,” said Sarah Mills, owner and trainer of Iron Star Equestrian. Sarah built her business from the ground up over the course of many years with a passion for horses that began at the age of 5. “They saved me. When my mother died and I didn’t have anything, I had the horses.” Now Sarah is a beloved coach, wife, mother, accomplished dressage rider and a successful barn-owner in North Florida. None of what she has accomplished has come easily, but starting with nothing didn’t prevent her from building a successful business and dressage career.
Early Years
Horses became an integral part of Sarah’s life at the age of 5 after her mother passed away from cancer. She spent the following summer with her aunt in Iowa, learning the basics of horse life surrounded by her family’s polo ponies and Saddlebreds. “I have a picture of me riding my aunt’s Saddlebred, Kacy, in Keds tennis shoes, a visor, T-shirt and shorts. I remember thinking how cool it was that even though I was so small, I could still make him do stuff,” Sarah said.
Riding lessons and horse summer camps continued to foster her passion over the next few years as she navigated the loss of her mother and the everyday challenges of growing up. At the time, the $185 Social Security check from her mother’s passing was what paid for all of her lessons, lease horse and shows. Sarah worked hard to learn as much as she could and took advantage of every opportunity that came her way.
She learned from a young age that there was value in working for your dreams and grabbed every chance to trade work for extra lessons both on and off the horse. “That’s why I try not to price people out; I try to work with people. If you want to work off your lessons, let’s do that. Whatever gets you to the barn, let’s do it,” Sarah said. “Horses saved me in a way, and if I can help facilitate that for someone else through the horses then I want to be there to do that.”
As Sarah outgrew the lesson ponies, she was given a free, retired OTTB event horse named Feather, whom she lovingly described as “nuttier than squirrel poo.” Together, they owned the jumper ring during Sarah’s early teen years. “She was hot, hot, hot, but gosh, she could jump,” Sarah said.
On October 13, 2001, Sarah and Feather competed at the HJ Fox Halloween Show. During the last class of the day, Feather was taking rails uncharacteristically. As they approached the triple, Sarah was pulled up Feather’s neck and then completely unseated as they took the next jump, throwing Sarah head over heels into the dirt.
She recalled waking to grass-stained knees in her face and her brand-new show shirt being cut open. She was rushed to the hospital, where X-rays confirmed Sarah had sustained three compression fractures in her spine from L-1 to L-3. The doctors told her she would be lucky to walk, possibly run with difficulty, and certainly would never ride again.
In true equestrian fashion, Sarah was riding a few months later. However, it wasn’t as simple as just climbing back in the saddle. Due to the fractures in her back, many horses’ gaits caused her significant discomfort. She became very discouraged as she looked for her next horse, wondering if she would find one she could ride comfortably. Then she found Ernie, a 4-year-old Thoroughbred. Ernie was Sarah’s partner for several years, traveling with her to college and summer camp between semesters until her senior year, when he returned home while Sarah finished her degree.
Sarah received a phone call in January of 2007 from the barn where Ernie was being boarded. Ernie had been involved in a freak accident in the pasture which caused degenerative paralysis. “My dad left work in his business suit and lawyer shoes and walked the 50 acres out to where Ernie was,” Sarah recalled. Her dad made phone calls to her aunt seeking advice, but in the end there was nothing to be done except let Ernie go. “At that point I didn’t know what I was going to do,” Sarah said. “I thought horses may have been a phase of my life that had ended, because I would never love another horse the way I loved Ernie.”
For a while, Sarah was absent from the horse world. She finished college, taking time to figure out what she wanted to do next. She went to Florida thinking she would be there temporarily, working various jobs. Then a flyer posted by Marsha Hartford Sapp in a local tack store changed everything. Sarah reached out and ended up assisting with the lesson program at Marsha’s barn. “While I was there, I became enthralled with the idea of starting horses,” Sarah said. And so, with Marsha’s help, Sarah purchased an unstarted 4-year-old she named Turk. With Turk as her partner, she learned the ins and outs of starting horses—round pen work, saddle breaking, the first sit—all the while healing some of the hurt from Ernie’s absence.
With these new skills added to her tool belt, Sarah ventured off on her own and started what is now Iron Star Equestrian. She started small by teaching lessons to clients she found through Craigslist, then moved to an empty eight-stall barn, which she filled and outgrew quickly. As always, there were ups and downs, several moves, lessons learned, friendships built and many other changes, but she eventually landed at her farm in Havana, Florida, where her business now thrives.
The Dressage Ring
Iron Star Equestrian is both a thriving lesson facility and home to the Florida State University (FSU) dressage team, hosting a large range of students of all ages and levels. Sarah fosters a love for learning in all of her students whether their goal is to show and compete or to own their own horse and care for it with confidence. While Iron Star Equestrian is both dressage- and eventing-based, Sarah’s personal focus lies in the dressage ring. Due to the previous injury to her back, Sarah put her jumping career behind her and instead found an incredible passion for dressage.
Sarah recalled one of her first rides on an experienced dressage horse named Corseco and how that ride truly sparked her love for the sport. “The things I was able to make him do, like walk to canter, a flying change on a straight line and then a lengthen, made me say, ‘Woah, my gosh, that is just the coolest thing!’”
Over the years many horses have carried Sarah into the dressage ring, but her homebred Trakehner, Ojos de Fuego, aka Charley, has been the most rewarding partner to work alongside. In 2024 Sarah and Charley competed in the USDF Region 3 Championships, bringing home scores they were proud of and a renewed determination to return in 2025 to achieve more goals. “The final salute on my first regionals test was very emotional for me,” she said. “I’d worked for almost nine years to get there and it had finally happened. I bawled tears of joy as I walked out of the ring.”
While Charley dances with Sarah in the dressage ring, her husband, Daniel Mills, supports her equally down every centerline. Daniel has sacrificed a lot of his own time to help Sarah reach her goals. He was the one to suggest starting their own breeding program and also pushed Sarah into the show ring. “He believes in me in a way that I don’t believe in myself,” Sarah said. “I wouldn’t be where I am right now if he didn’t support me and push me out of my comfort zone.”
As a new year begins, Sarah plans to use 2025 as a building year for Charley and herself. They will be showing First Level and hope to qualify for USDF regionals again, while growing Charley’s confidence in the show ring. They will also be debuting their first dressage musical freestyle this year. Long term, Sarah plans to earn her Bronze medal on Charley, her first homebred horse. She also plans to begin earning her freestyle bars this year.
There have been many ups and downs and setbacks, but success is a choice. The tools to achieve it may be handed down or built from scratch, but every rider has the opportunity to be successful and achieve their goals if they are willing to work for it one day at a time. And to Sarah, that is the most important part of her story and what she hopes to share with each rider she encounters. “I want people to realize you don’t have to start with a family farm, a big name or a great show record,” she said. “I didn’t, and now I have a farm full of boarders, eight lesson horses, 40 students, and an assistant instructor that has 10. I have the FSU dressage team and IEA team. We are active with South Wind Dressage & Eventing Association, USDF and USEA.”
One step at a time, Sarah is achieving the goals she has worked for her entire life—even if it’s in dressage, not jumping. “The way it feels in the tack when it’s right is like hitting that perfect distance,” she said. “It has the exact same high for me as jumping did. I just love the way it makes me feel, and I love the way it makes the horses feel, because they should feel good. If you do it right and you ride the wind under your leg and the rings of your bit, it’s a feeling like no other.”
For more information, visit Sarah at www.ironstarequestrian.com
Photos by Becky Henderson, www.calicoandchrome.com
