story by Ruth Nicolaus
Twins Sage and Dakota Glinn are similar in many ways. They’re both kind, both love competing in sports and riding horses.
They also have their share of differences. Sage is a night owl and has trouble getting out of bed in the morning, while Dakota goes to bed early and gets up easier. Sage gets mad faster and easier than Dakota does, and is the louder of the two, Dakota said. Sage is funnier and makes her sister laugh a lot. Dakota likes to get her homework done right away, unlike Sage, who “waits to the last minute,” Dakota said.
But the two, who live ten miles north of Keystone, Neb., have one big thing in common: rodeo, and as members of the Nebraska Junior High School Rodeo Association, they both compete in the pole bending, barrel racing, goat tying, team roping (Sage as header and Dakota as heeler), and the ribbon roping.
For Sage, who is thirty seconds older than Dakota, poles are her best event. She rides Roanie, who is also her breakaway and goat tying horse, and who is the heel horse for Dakota.
The family also has Mutt, a big gray horse who is Sage’s head horse and barrel horse, and True, a buckskin that Dakota uses for barrels, poles and goats.
Mutt is the “gentle giant,” Sage says, as he stands 16.3 hands tall and is “really kind and bubbly.” Roanie is the “cool guy, who is better than everybody else,” she said. True, Dakota’s horse, is “always happy with a fun personality.”
Dakota – Sandall Photography
The cowgirls are eighth grade students at Arthur Co. School, where they love their small school. Sage enjoys history class and learning about the American West, the Native Americans and bandits like Jesse James. Dakota prefers biology and human science, which come easy to her, she says. Both girls love their history teacher, Mrs. Channer. “Her teaching methods are really good,” Dakota said, “and she’s really nice.” Sage also appreciated her fourth through sixth grade history teacher, Miss Alber.
Arthur Co. Schools does not serve a school lunch, so kids bring lunches from home. But once every two weeks, the student council and FFA programs take turns selling lunches to the students. Monies raised go towards trips, and the lunches are really good, the girls report, with spaghetti and meatballs, garlic bread, burritos and tacos at the top of their favorites list.
Both girls participate in volleyball, basketball and track; FFA and quiz bowl.
Sage – Sandall Photography
Sage likes to help with motors and helped her dad replace an engine on a tractor last year. Dakota helps around the house but is also becoming an expert on moving big round bales, loading them on the bale bed, and stacking them neatly in the hay yard.
Both girls are training horses. Sage is starting a five-year-old gray named Blaze as a barrel horse and possibly as a pole or breakaway horse. She’s also working with JC, a bay mare who is four.
Dakota is working with a horse named Sassy who she hopes will be a breakaway horse, and if not breakaway, poles and barrels.
The girls really enjoy meeting their mom’s side of the family in Deadwood, S.D. The hotel they stay at has waterslides, which are fun, and they both love the history and museums in the area. Sage loves visiting the saloon where Wild Bill Hickok was killed.
Both 14-year-old girls qualified for state finals their sixth grade years, in the barrels, poles and goats, and in seventh grade, with a canceled state finals, both finished their seasons in the top fifteen in at least one of their events.
When Sage grows up, she’d like to ranch and pro rodeo and hopes to be the first world champion team roper in the PRCA. When Dakota grows up, she’d like to be a nurse, since she likes science classes and loves to help people.
The girls have an older sister, Kelli. They are the daughters of Scott and Julie Glinn.
