Custer rider preparing horse for Stock Show

Sara Stites is one of those young women who has made horses a part of her life.  Sara is a senior at Custer High School and lives near Crazy Horse Memorial. Her parents are Mark and Shannon Stites, Custer.

 As a requirement for graduation, Custer students are required to take a class called Senior Projects for either first or second semester, says mom Shannon. “Sara is in the first group. They are required to pick a subject of interest, do research, find a mentor, write a five-page paper, produce a final product and then do a presentation on the whole process to a large panel.”

Sara shows American quarter horses in National Cutting Horse (NCHA) competition and is a National Youth Cutting Horse Association (NYCHA) area director. In addition, she performs in reining, cowhorse, English and  western  pleasure divisions and has won many titles and almost $7,000 in prize money in cattle cutting alone on her mare April Snow Queen.

“She has started (trained) colts before for fun, loves anything to do with spending time on or with a horse and loves animals,” Shannon said, so naturally, she would choose a project that had to do with animals and she finally settled on the topic of Assisted Animal Therapy after much research.