By Taylor Boggs ’16, Sports Editor
Sophomore Kady Abrahamson has been horseback riding for the last 13 years her life, since the age of three, and is now looking towards the 2016 Olympics. She is a jumper and is currently ranked first in in the region and third in the National League. Her first horse’s name was Fanny and she has owned a horse for as long as she can remember. Today, she owns four show horses: Basco H2, Irish Hunt, S&L Icebreaker, and Bamiro. Maintaining quite a busy schedule, she practices “seven days a week—four hours on week days and all day on the weekend. ” She also “works out with a personal trainer twice a week”.
On top of her intense training, Abrahamson travels far distances to attend shows nearly “every other weekend”. The coolest place she has ever been to compete was in West Palm Beach, Florida. Although she has been to countless numbers of shows, the best prize she has ever won was “a check for $7500 and a huge first place trophy”. Right now, she is training for her next big show: the Gucci Masters in Paris, France, which will take place in the summer of 2014.
Abrahamson is currently training with Sharn Wordley and Scott Keach. Her training takes place in Lexington, Kentucky during the summer and Ocala, Florida in the winter. She said that if she could ever train or clinic with anyone in the world it would be George Morris. “He was the Olympic show jumping team trainer and I trained with him last October.” Abrahamson is also going to be gone for the whole of third quarter in order to train for her show in Paris.
Like most athletes, Abrahamson has a good luck charm that she wears every time she competes: a blue rubber bracelet that she always places on her left wrist. Her advice to any riders out there or any athletes for that matter
is to “keep trying even if you fail. Never give up and always look on the bright side. And most importantly don’t get annoyed with your mistakes, learn from them.” Abrahamson’s plans for the future are to be on the Olympic jumping team, as a 16 year old, in the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics.
photo credit: http://www.phelpssports.com/
