Speed Miller shares the peace he's found in horses with Detroit's children: Urban cowboy

[demmiblue]

For years now, alert motorists on Detroit's west side have been treated to an unusual sight. They have posted photos of what they've seen on social networking and even sent them to our office, in surprise and in puzzlement, but mostly in delight. What they have witnessed is a young rider on a Western saddle guiding his horse down West Seven Mile Road, past the gas stations and fast food restaurants, a sight that seems so out of place in the car-centric Motor City as to be remarkable.

Late this summer, the horseman finally calls and invites us to watch him ride. On a recent morning, we drive over to a house near the intersection of West Seven Mile Road and the Lodge Freeway. There we finally connect with 21-year-old Speed Miller, the "Greenfield Gaucho" we'd seen photographed so widely. He speaks with us while he carefully guides his 12-year-old Tennessee walking horse named Frisk out of a stock trailer, carefully grooming the animal, which eyes us contentedly.

Miller credits his love of horses to his grandfather, the elderly man who watches from the porch for a moment before allowing his grandson to handle the reporter and photographer. The elder has owned a 44-acre farm outside of Belleville for generations, and that's where the young rider began his love affair with horses.

That fascination began with his mother, who found encouragement from Miller's grandfather when she climbed into the saddle decades ago. "My mom, she started doing barrel racing. When she got pregnant with me she stopped riding, then I started riding as I got older, and it just became me and him," Miller says, motioning toward his grandfather.

Though born in Detroit, Miller spent some of his first few years living with his mother on the farm. They moved around a bit, as he attended elementary school in Detroit, middle school in Southfield, and high school in Romulus, but the farm remained home base.

https://www.metrotimes.com/detroit/speed-miller-shares-the-peace-hes-found-in-horses-with-detroits-children/Content?oid=16118943

[MrScorpio]

1. In the past, cops have been the only people to ride horses on the city streets

It’s about time regular folks get to have that fun too.

[Bayard]

2. Whew!

Wish he was wearing a helmet. Especially under those conditions.