Bainbridge equestrian rider makes it to the top

Published 3:58 pm Tuesday, December 21, 2010

At just 6 years old, Jesse Shurtleff straddled a horse for the first time.

A dozen years later, the Bainbridge High School senior is very much at home in the saddle, with hundreds of pounds of muscle and power beneath her competing at the elite levels of national equestrian competition.

“This is what I do, and this is what I love,” said Jesse. “It may sound corny, but my horses are some of my best friends. Riding is what I do and it is what I love.”

At 18, Jesse was one of 208 junior riders nationwide to qualify for the 2010 USEF National Hunter Seat Medal Finals – one of the country’s most prestigious junior horse riding competitions – in Harrisburg, Pa. Her love of horses is deeply engrained in her life, and now with her junior career finished, Shurtleff is looking to her future to find a way to stay in the saddle.

Like many youngsters drawn to horses, Shurtleff started riding early. She dabbled with various other activities growing up, but eventually her love of horses left little time for anything else. Now she rides at least six days a week training at Woodside Stables in Kingston with the goal of being an accomplished equitation rider.

The sport of equitation relies on a bond between rider and horse to communicate through various signals to execute jumps and a series of skills of subtle movement shifts on flat ground. The sport requires an immense amount of dedication, and often money, to make it to the premier levels of competition.

The road to the Hunter finals was not easy for Jesse. Nancy Shurtleff, her mother, said the Pacific Northwest is hardly on the map for equestrian competition. Many of the big names come from the East Coast with family traditions of elite success. Nancy said Woodside is the only barn in Kitsap County with the training and expertise to take riders to the top.

Jesse and her equestrian partner, Aragon, spent last summer traveling to competitions in Canada, Oregon and California, chasing victories and collecting points to qualify for a spot at the regional level. She was well on her way to the regional competition when Aragon went lame with a leg injury; he will take at least a year to recover.

With Jesse having qualified for the Hunter medals, the Shurtleffs needed another horse quick. Within a few weeks Armani arrived – in a horse-sized FedEx box – from Kentucky. Getting the right horse is equally as critical as training the rider, Nancy Shurtleff said.

All the hours of practice and training paid off when Jesse was able to compete at the top ranks, and though she had a disappointing finish in another tournament earlier this year, she cherishes her experiences.

“Making it to that level was definitely one of the best experiences of my life,” she said. “I worked really hard to make it where I did.”

After the competition, Armani headed back to Kentucky and Jesse returned to Woodside Stables where she still trains with her two other horses.

Her love of horses runs deep and is something she plans to pursue as a life-long career. With her natural connection to horses, she treats the animals with the same respect one would afford to any other partner or co-worker.

“Horses have personalities and opinions just like people do,” said Jesse. “Some days he is just not into it and then somedays I can tell he is bursting with energy and we communicate and he does what I want him to do.”

Heading into the final months of her high school years, Jesse plans to take a year off from school and work in the horse industry as an apprentice in a barn – riding, working and cleaning for a professional rider. After that she is weighing her college options between schools in Canada, Scotland and Ireland, and the University of Washington.

2010 USEF medal finals Jesse Shurtleff and Armani