A 19-year-old barrel racer is back in the saddle this week after thieves sold her $3,000 saddle to a pawn shop.

Sarah Miller was competing in the Canadian National College Finals Rodeo in early April when someone broke into her truck and stole her Brittany Pozzi barrel racing saddle. The thieves apparently took the saddle to an Edmonton pawn shop, where the owner recognized the saddle from the picture circulating in the news.

"He knew the saddle was stolen so he immediately bought the saddle and took it to a police station in Edmonton," Miller wrote to the CBC in an email Sunday.

"There aren't any words that can describe how truly thankful I am for your news team taking an interest in my story and getting it known to the public," Miller wrote. "If this saddle wouldn't [have] been shown on the news the pawn shop owner would [have] never known!"

Police called Miller Tuesday afternoon to tell her about the saddle.

She asked her parents to drive up to get it because she was writing exams at Olds College.

The pawn shop owner told them that he heard about the saddle from an interview Miller did with CBC Radio earlier in April.

"I rode on it yesterday, I went to a barrel racing up in Mayerthorpe, and it felt so good to be back in that saddle," Miller says. "It means the world to me because I never thought I was going to see it again."

She had filed a police report and also posted the theft on Facebook and Twitter on April 7.

The two thieves had sold the saddle to the pawn shop owner for $400.