Quick Chat: Sara Parr

By John Frierson
Staff Writer

Sara Parr had a great riding career at Georgia, earning first-team All-American honors and helping the Bulldogs' equestrian team to the 2015 SEC championship and the 2014 NCEA national championship. In 2018, she returned as a member of coach Meghan Boenig's coaching staff, working with Horsemanship and Reigning riders.

During a recent Quick Chat, Parr, from Social Circle, Ga., talked about working with Boenig, adjusting to life amid the coronavirus pandemic, how she got started riding and much more. Here's some of what she had to say:

Frierson: The obvious question to start off with is, what is it like being in the situation that you're in? You can't coach, Georgia was about to host the SEC Championships and now we're all staying home and waiting this thing out?

Parr: It was quite a shock, I'm not going to lie. We're all kind of adjusting to this new way of life. ... We were gearing up for SECs and now it's checking in on academics and checking in on how the team's doing. They're obviously devastated and they were excited to host, and to have that gone, especially for the seniors, has been pretty tough.

Frierson: How are you filling your time when you're not working?

Parr: Luckily, I live on a farm and I have three horses of my own. With coaching, I don't have a lot of time to ride them or anything, and I have a young one that I'm kind of bringing up, so it's kind of nice to have that little extra time that I didn't think I would have with him and to be able to ride my own horses.

I've also been taking my dogs for walks and that's about it. It's mostly still being around horses, but not at the level that I was at before. ... My dogs love it and my horses are happy and I have some cats, so I have my own little zoo out here. And they seem pretty happy that I'm around all day.

Frierson: How did you get started with horses?

Parr: I started riding when I was three. I come from a non-horse family, actually, my mom rode a little bit but not really. I got started because I saw this video for kids that had a little snippet of a girl riding a horse, and I just bugged my parents to let me go ride. Soon after that, I got my first pony.

Frierson: What was the pony's name?

Parr: Her name was Cookie and I think she was $400, including all of the equipment that we needed. My Pop and my dad went and loaded her up and she lived on a goat farm for a little bit.

Frierson: When did this go from something you liked as a little kid to something that you had a real passion for and have been doing ever since?

Parr: As soon as I could ride I wanted to be with the horses and loved to be with them. When I was six I got my first horse — his name was Pal because he was a palomino, and he was amazing. I did a lot of open shows with him and I think when I was 11 I got my first show horse.

I think everyone thought that eventually the horse thing would go away ... but eventually everyone realized that this isn't going away [laughs]. Luckily, my parents were super supportive; they'll still say they aren't horse people but they have jumped in with both feet and have been so supportive from the start.

Frierson: Georgia is interesting in that there are so many teams with former Bulldogs as head coaches or assistant coaches. Having been a Bulldog yourself only a few years ago, what is it like coaching with Meghan now?

Parr: I was on the Western side so my primary coach was the Western coach at the time, and it used to be that when I'd get a phone call from Coach M it quite honestly was kind of scary [laughs] because you never knew what it was about.

She was such a leader and a mentor of that team and unfortunately I never got to ride under her, but you learn a lot about your coaches when you start working for them. Just little things that you never knew and it's been really awesome working with her. She's been doing this for a very long time, so she has a lot of expertise to share. It's been a really fun transition.

Frierson: Have you figured out the key to her success yet?

Parr: You know, I try to do that every day [laughs]. There are so many things that she knows and does, and it's awesome to be able to work with someone like that, someone that's been here so long and seen the sport evolve.

Frierson: When you were riding for Georgia, did you envision going into coaching or training?

Parr: I wasn't sure when I graduated college. The only thing that I've ever been really passionate about is horses, so I thought about being a trainer but that didn't seem like the perfect fit for me. I happened to volunteer coach at South Caroline for a year and that's where I really realized that this is what I want to do.

All the doors opened up and I was able to come back home and coach at Georgia. It all kind of very organically happened and it's not something that I knew was a dream job for a long time, but then I realized pretty quickly that it was.

Frierson: This isn't a time for traveling, but if you could travel anywhere in the world on somebody else's dime, where would you like to go?

Parr: I would have to say, I love Wyoming. I've been there one time, it was a long time ago when we went to Jackson Hole with my family, and I love it out there. I think I would go and do a long week in Wyoming.

I would want to go to a real dude ranch, go and be outside and be with the horses and see what that life would be like.

Frierson: Do you have a creative side? Is there anything creative you do or wish you could do?

Parr: I wish I could play a musical instrument. I have tried, I actually took piano in college as an elective and I was bad, really bad. So I wish I had some kind of musical talent, but unfortunately that is not a gift that I have.

(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.

University of Georgia Athletics

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