She tried, she really gave it a shot — but Michelle Abendroth could not get her reins around the sport of softball.
“When she was 7, I signed her up for Kenmore Little League softball, and she did not like that,” said mom Tommie with a laugh last week.
Added Michelle with a shake of the head: “At the end of the season, I said, ‘Please, let me ride horses!’ I could not catch or hit the ball … I was terrible at softball.”
So, the Kenmore youngster took the horse route and has never looked back. She’s been bucked off the animals and suffered several injuries, but overall she’s been a smooth rider and trainer with a roomful of awards to her name. Her latest prize is a 2½-foot first-place ribbon — a weighty item decked out in blue, red and gold — for Children’s Jumper Low Level 1 division for Zone 9 riders in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.
Michelle laughs when noticing that the ribbon stands almost as high as the 3-foot to 3.3-foot fences she and her pony Finesse must clear during events.
The 15-year-old Inglemoor High sophomore has been winning equestrian events from the get-go.
In her first competition at age 7 at the Hollywood Hill Saddle Club in Woodinville, she and her thoroughbred quarterhorse Jet won two firsts, a second and a fourth.
“I loved it, I wanted to work for it,” she said of her early success. “I went to the barn multiple times a week, practicing and trying to improve my weak points.”
Tommie knew Michelle was a tough competitor when she first hopped onto a horse.
“After her second lesson, she said, ‘I don’t understand why I’m not jumping yet,’” mom said.
Michelle competes in both the jumper and hunter categories. For
the uninitiated, jumper is all about speed and accuracy while hunter is about manners and style. During events, rider and horse must clear 8-12 jumps in 55 seconds to 1½ minutes and then win a jump off to take first place. Michelle and Finesse won their recent top prize with the most combined points in 15 jumper events; they added a sixth-place finish in the open category, which features professionals and amateurs.
While Michelle enjoys both divisions, she taps her fist on the kitchen table when discussing jumper: “It’s more of a rush, more exciting rather than perfection.”
Michelle’s next big event will be next month on Bainbridge Island, but she’s been keeping busy out at Sundance Equestrian in Woodinville training horses and giving lessons for about 20 hours a week.
Perhaps Michelle’s biggest and most heartwarming accomplishment was rescuing Finesse from starvation when the pony was 2 or 3 and molding her into a champion at 9 years old. Finesse was born from a mare whose urine helped produce Premarin — a drug used as a hormone replacement therapy aid for women — during its pregnancy and was then discarded.
“To see her confident and happy is a good feeling,” said Michelle. “‘Cause I contributed to quite a bit of her training.”
The LeAnn Rimes look-a-like, who surprisingly speaks with a bit of a Southern drawl — probably picked up from listening to country music alongside her faves Nirvana and Pink Floyd — has grown stronger mentally and physically through horse riding.
“It has helped Michelle become more patient and driven,” Tommie said.
Added Michelle on the physical side: “I lift weights and run to build stamina and endurance. As a trainer, you’re riding several horses a day and you have to be physically fit. And at least 50 percent of it is mental because a 1,000-pound horse can rear or flip over on you or pitch you off a jump.”
She also speaks of bonding with Finesse and compromising with the horse during competitions.
“You know and feel when (for example) their left foot or leg is sore,” Michelle said. “If they’re scared of a fence, you have to back them up when they’re not 100 percent.
“There’s mental communication, and you talk to the horse: ‘That jump is scary, OK, OK, we’re gonna do this.’”
It’s worked for Michelle and Finesse — from the course to the victory circle.
