POULSBO — Miss Albeit and Just My Style have to be two of the best sports team partners around.

But there’s a catch: They’re horses, loved, cared for and ridden by 13-year-old twins, Brianna and Britney Comstock, respectively, who attend Ridgetop Junior High in Silverdale.

At Washington’s premier and most prestigious horse show — the Evergreen Classic Aug. 6-10 — Brianna and Miss Albeit claimed Champion honors in the 2 feet, 6 inches children’s jumping division, and Britney and Just My Style snagged two Reserve Champions in the 3 feet and 3 feet, 3 inches children’s jumping division.

Britney was only two points away from Champion status.

A Champion title is earned by having the highest cumulative point count of all the competitors in the prospective division and Reserve Champion is the second highest point count.

Earning these honors is no small feat, especially for the Comstock twins, who rode horses they hadn’t worked with for very long.

“With the caliber of horses at this show and how large the classes were — they were enormous — for them to even place was a pretty significant deal,” said the twins’ mother and horse and rider trainer for 23 years, Dawn Comstock. “I’ve got to say I was pretty darn impressed with the way they rode. I couldn’t have asked any more out of them as riders. They are two very talented girls.”

Comstock said about 700 horses and riders from around the Northwest arrived in Monroe to perform.

The girls’ own excitement matched that of their mom’s, as evidenced by the decorations adorning the horses’ stall windows.

At the five-acre expanse that is the Whispering Sunrise Farm, owned by Comstock and located off Brownsville Highway, Miss Albeit and Just My Style can be found in their stalls. Their deep brown and gentle eyes the color of a cup of Earl Grey tea curiously peer out. Their brown hides, similar in hue to soil after a summer’s thunderstorm, have been brushed smooth by their caring owners.

Hung in a row in front of Miss Albeit’s window are the duo’s collection of Evergreen Classic ribbons — a Champion, two firsts, a second, third and fourth. On a bar below is a green and yellow-trimmed white Champion horse blanket. The picture is nearly the same in front of Just My Style’s window; two Reserve Champion ribbons, two firsts, a second, fifth, sixth and eighth. Below the window hang two green-trimmed Reserve Champion horse blankets: Evidence of the girl’s performance pride.

“I didn’t know I was going to do so good and I was really excited when I got it (Reserve Champion), it was a total surprise,” Britney said. “I had a goal to do good — a few firsts — but I just wanted to try and do my best, but I did really well.”

Brianna echoed her sister’s sentiments.

“I was very excited and I was very proud of her (Miss Albeit) because she did such a good job,” Brianna said. “It was such a big show and we couldn’t have done it without each other, so it was teamwork.”

Perhaps the most notable piece of the twin’s story is the amount of preparation time they had with the horses. The Evergreen Classic was only the second time Brianna and Miss Albeit performed together, and Brianna was supposed to ride another horse that got injured. Britney had only been working with Just My Style for eight to 10 weeks before the classic. Comstock said developing a horse/rider relationship is key to performance and usually takes a lot of time and work.

“The big thing is they’re a team. There’s two minds trying to work together and there’s definitely a challenge to that,” she said. “They’ve got to have a relationship with the horse. To get on a horse that hates you doesn’t work very well.”

The twins rode multiple courses at the Classic, which Comstock said were loaded with tricks; bending lines, skinny jumps, jumps off of a turn and combinations. She said the technique of just getting a horse and rider around the course is extremely huge.

The twins rode with style and ease.

“They’ve become quite the Comstock team,” she said.

The Comstock twins have been riding as long as they can remember. As a birthday gift they received a pony named “Tweety” complete with balloons, and they used to trot around and maybe jumped a little bit.

Comstock said they fell off a lot, but that’s how they established their balance.

Britney recited a saying to put into perspective how many times she tumbled to the ground.

“You have to fall off 21 times to be a good rider,” she said. “I think I’ve established that.”

Brianna added she’s doubled that.

Now their days of 21 falls are over. They ride for the freedom and for the partnerships they form with their horses, which they know will take care of them.

As young teenagers their days are different than most their age. They’re up early to feed and water their horses. They clean the stalls, practice riding five days a week on multiple horses and they help build and paint the jumps at the farm.

The girls will compete next at the Octoberfest Horse Show in Auburn, Sept. 6-7.

In addition to the twins, Comstock brought Fiona Stanton and Russell Burke of Bainbridge Island and Katrina Sabatini of Seabeck, to the Classic.

“Everybody had a fabulous show,” she said. “It was a treat for all of these kids to be able to ride.”