University of Georgia Athletics
Quick Chat: Sara Lewis
November 27, 2019 | Equestrian, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
Sara Lewis has been around horses and basketball her whole life. The Georgia equestrian sophomore, the SEC Freshman Horsemanship Rider of the Year, comes by both naturally, growing up in a family that loved horses and in the hoops hotbed of Indiana.
The 5-foot-10 Lewis' hometown of Washington, a small town of about 12,000 people in the southwest part of the state, is also the home of the hoops-playing Zeller brothers, all of whom have spent time in the NBA. Lewis played basketball, but as she explained during this Quick Chat, horses were her No. 1 passion from a very young age.
Here's some of what she had to say:
Frierson: Does your height matter much in riding, in terms of doing it well, your posture and everything else?
Lewis: It can help you and hurt you, it depends on what aspect you're looking at. As far as the whole picture, if your posture is good, then it creates an overall prettier picture. If, say, your elbows are out or your legs, it stands out more so than someone who's not as tall, I think.
Frierson: Did you come from a riding family or did you get introduced to the sport later on?
Lewis: I have actually been riding since I was less than 2 years old, because my uncle had horses and so they would put me on them. I fell in love with them and was just running around the pasture when I was 2 or 3. I had horses that I rode around the house and then some of the people that watched me when I was younger, they showed at the local level. That was how I got started and worked my way up until I got here, so I've been doing it for quite a while.
Frierson: Did you play any other sports growing up?
Lewis: In middle school I played basketball and volleyball, and in high school I played basketball and track all four years. In track I did the high jump and 4x400 relay, the 400, the 4x100 relay.
Frierson: Do sports like that and riding tap into anything similar?
Lewis: I think just the aspect of team and dedication and working hard to get to whatever goal you want to achieve. I think that aspect is the same but not necessarily the physical aspect of them. The work ethic and mentality are the same.
Frierson: What's something you could eat every day and never get tired of it?
Lewis: I like a lot of sweets, not necessarily a good thing, and I love bananas and peanut butter as well. I could eat that all the time.
Frierson: Tell me about home, when you think of home what comes to mind?
Lewis: I'm from a very small town so there's not a lot there. I love where I live and we have a little farm area, 14 acres, part of it's field and we have our own barn, so everything is right there.
I also think of my animals, my mom and dad — I love them all.
Frierson: I saw on Wikipedia that the Zeller brothers, all of whom are or were in the NBA, are also from your hometown.
Lewis: They were a little before my time but I grew up going to the games and watching them. Our high school gym is actually top 10 in the nation for seating capacity, so it's a large gym — it's old and it has the wooden bleachers and concrete stairs. But whenever we went to those games, the atmosphere was crazy because so many people came from all over the place to watch them play. It was really cool.
If sports people ask where I'm from, I include that in the description, that I'm from the same hometown as them.
Frierson: If you could travel anywhere in the world on somebody else's dime, where would you go?
Lewis: I want to go to Europe, all of those countries. My mom has been to Europe and she wants to go again, so I would love to go with her or with some of my friends from back home. I also like tropical places ... really, I would go anywhere except Antartica. I don't really like cold places.
Frierson: How does that go in Indiana, because I'm figuring it gets pretty cold there in the winter.
Lewis: It's one of those places where anything can happen in a given second. It can be snowing one day and the next day be 50 degrees. It does get warm and very humid in the summer.
Frierson: When it comes to loving equestrian, how much of for you is the riding experience and how much of it is just being around the horses?
Lewis: I kind of enjoy both, just because you get to enjoy spending time with them to begin with and then you also get to show them to the best of their ability and the best of your ability. I love the showing part of it, because you finally get to do what you've been working for.
(This Q&A was lightly edited for length and clarity.)
John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
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