“I Hope That in a Few Years Israel Will Be a Little Stone in the Shoe of Many”
DINETTE NEUTEBOOM March 23rd, 2021 17 minute read
He was born in Mexico where he rode as an amateur until the highest level, he developed his riding to the top of the sport in Europe, finished fifth individually at the London Olympics in 2012 as an amateur, then became professional and moved to the U.S. where he started his own business. Now his goal is to compete at the Tokyo Olympic Games with Team Israel.
Long story short: the last two decades have been quite an international rollercoaster for top jumper rider Alberto Michan. The 42-year-old rider is known as a very nice guy, blessed with an incredible natural talent for riding horses and jumping big fences. With a very powerful Team Israel he is ready to surprise the world in Tokyo.
𝐏𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧
“I was born in Mexico and started riding when I was little. My parents were riding too. I felt the passion and got very involved, very quickly. I had an amazing coach, Alberto Valdés. He transmitted his passion for horses to me,” says Michan about the Pan-American, Central-American, and Olympic medalist. “He just passed away this year. That was a hard punch, but I am very grateful that I had him in my life. A lot of who I am as a person and a rider, I owe to him. With him I did everything from the Children's to the Grand Prix and competing on the teams.”
Michan won multiple gold medals at several Central American Games, he won an individual bronze medal at the Pan American Games, and went to two Olympic Games.” I did Beijing and London, and in London I fished fifth,” recalls Michan, who also participated in three World Cup finals, and in the World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany, and Caen, France.
𝐋𝐚 𝐒𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐚
“When I was riding for Mexico, I had a lot of people that helped me, a lot of good sponsors. La Silla of course was the biggest and one of the biggest I will probably ever have in my life. They gave me the opportunity to expand internationally,” says Michan about the breeding operation in Mexico. Many famous show jumping horses were born and raised at Alfonso Romo’s La Silla.
“I started in Mexico City,” recalls Michan. “Mister Romo sent me two 5-year-olds. One of those was Chela LS (Fergar Mail x Dollar de la Pierre), who later went to the WEG with Ashley Bond. After that Rosalia came on my path,” says Michan about the Holsteiner mare by Cassini x Contender. “She was in France. They tried to sell her, but didn’t have a client, so Mister Romo told me about her. He said that he liked her very much, that he didn’t know how big she could jump, but that it’s a nice horse.”
Alfonso Romo, a Monterrey businessman who recently resigned as Chief of Staff to the Mexican President, was right. Michan and Rosalia began working and training together and finished fifth individually at the London Olympic Games in 2012 and won an individual silver medal at the Central American Games in 2010. Michan is very grateful for that partnership. “In the end I got the mare, and she took me everywhere. It was a great combination.”
𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐭 𝐓𝐨𝐩 𝐋𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥
But before Michan went to the 2012 Olympics, he moved to Europe. “We decided to go to Holland, to Roggel, to prepare for the Pan-American Games. Hay Verdellen rented us some stalls, and I was training with Theo Molenaers,” says Michan. He was very impressed with the level of the sport overseas. “It was my first time showing in Europe, and it was completely different. It’s the top of the sport.”
During his time in Europe, Michan got to experience what it takes to compete at top level. “I had great people behind me. That is very important if you want to do the sport well, besides having good horses,” knows Michan. “Those were amazing years. We were medallist at the Pan-American Games in Guadalajara, and then we got a spot for the Olympic Games in London. Mister Romo decided that it was okay if I wanted to stay in Europe to prepare for the Olympics and do all the big shows. I did, and I think we did with very good success,” Michan smiles.
𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐀𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥
By making the choice to stay in Europe, personally Michan’s life changed a lot as well. “When I was little, it was a very difficult job to live off horses in Mexico. There were not so many riders, few sales, and few shows with good money, so most people were amateurs. I had my business with my brother in the textile industry. I always rode very early in the morning, and then went to work,” says Michan.
But things changed when the Olympics were looming. “After the Pan-Am Games, when I decided to go to the Olympics, I took a sabbatical for a year. Then after the Olympics, I got a call from Mister Romo, and he asked me if I wanted to come back, or if I wanted to stay. At home, we had partnered with someone in the textile industry, so I told him that I would love to stay. That is when I really made the switch from amateur to professional, even though I had been doing it all my life.”
𝐎𝐰𝐧 𝐁𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬
Michan stayed in Europe for four more years before he moved to the Unites States. “Until 2016 I stayed in Europe with a very nice relationship with La Silla. But then I was offered a job with Ilan Ferder here in the US,” says Michan. “For me it was a way to do it more as a business. Ilan has a lot of sales, the structure as a business was more complete. I could have commissions, I could have a salary and prize money. I was a little bit more in the circumstances that I could keep myself in the sport and also grow in making a career and a business for myself. It was a good opportunity.”
Two years later Michan decided to continue on his own. “I had a meeting with my wife to see if we were gonna do it by ourselves. We started in 2018. Ilan and I keep being good friends and doing business together, we have seven horses together, and I think that guy is amazing in what he does.”
Over the past years, Michan has built up a nice group of clients. “I have a few clients of all levels that I am very excited to help. I have some kids that are doing the under 14, another girl that is jumping the small adults, then I have some amateurs, and Toni Leviste. Toni is a Philipino girl that did the Asian Games with me last year. She won silver. Now we are trying to prepare for the WEG.”
𝐌&𝐑 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐃𝐚𝐲𝐬
Besides his training business, and his own competition horses, Michan has some sales horses. He also developed the M&R Training Days at the Jim Brandon Center in Wellington. Every week from November through April, riders of all levels can jump a training course on Monday night under the lights, or on Tuesday the whole day. “People who have been to Europe know how common it is over there to have these training shows,” says Michan. “People use these opportunities to give a young horse experience, to train a student, to try out a potential new horse, to reschool a horse that lost confidence or to prepare a horse for a horse show. It’s a lot cheaper than going to an official horse show and there’s less pressure,” says Michan.
“Our intention was to create something to help people prepare for WEF. We don’t want to take people away from WEF, but we wanted to create something to complete the Wellington experience. We see it as an addition to WEF.”
Riders and trainers seem to be happy with the efforts of Michan and his partner Juan Andrès Rodriguez. “It is busy, and we get all kinds of riders, also all the big names,” says Michan.
𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬
Besides training clients and organizing the training days, Michan is also training his top horse Cosa Nostra (Conthargos x Quintender) for, hopefully, the Olympic Games in Tokyo. Michan qualified for Tokyo with Team Israel. Michan tells us how he came to the decision to change nationalities. “I am Jewish by religion,” he starts. “When I was in Europe, Eduard de Rothschild and Elad Yaniv approached me. The equestrian sport in Israel wasn’t growing, so they thought that maybe it would be a good idea to work on building a team to represent Israel at the big level. If you are Jewish in the world, Israel gives you the change to be citizen,” explains Michan. “We talked about it, but nothing happened, it wasn’t the right moment. Then Dani Waldman-Goldstein changed, then Daniel Bluman. Then Daniel called me and said that I needed to come with him, that we are gonna win a medal together,” Michan smiles. “We are all from different countries, but we have our religion in common. And I must say, our religion does bond. So I made the change, and it is very exciting to be part of this team. I feel very honored, and I am very proud of it,” says Michan, although he admits that Mexico will always be part of him as well.
“I still love Mexico, and I will always be grateful. I cheer them on when they are in the ring, but at the same time, I feel a very good and profound connection with Israel. I really get goosebumps when I hear the national anthem, I really feel it. That for me was the most important thing. Because when I was riding for Mexico, I was always proud to be Mexican and to ride for my country. But one day, when Daniel Bluman won in the Hamptons, and I heard the national anthem of Israel, which I have heard since I was little, I felt it too. So I knew I could do it. I feel part of it and I am part of it. That’s when I knew it would be a privilege to make the switch.”
𝐓𝐰𝐨 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐏𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐦
After a few years of building a team, Israel currently seems in good shape with several world class riders being part of it. “The team is very interesting, because the focus is very professional. We have some very good riders, and two monsters of coaches helping us.” Michan is talking about the Dutchmen Hand Horn and Jeroen Dubbeldam, two living legends from the equestrian industry.
Hans Horn is one of the most recognized coaches and managers in the equestrian industry, having successfully trained the Dutch, Swedish and Italian teams over the years. Horn led them to numerous victories and several Olympic participations. Among many more important victories, he won Olympic team gold with the Dutch team at the Olympic Games in 1992 in Barcelona, Spain.
Jeroen Dubbeldam is one of the most decorated riders of all times, having won individual Olympic, World, and European gold medals.
Michan explains the decision to ask those two equestrian heavy weights. “We had a meeting, and we said that we wanted to start on the right foot. We have to get the right leaders that will guide us, and that will have the respect of everyone,” says Michan. “If they say: ‘Aby, you are on the team, or you are not, then I respect that choice, because I know it’s for the best interest of the team, and I know that they know more than we do.”
Michan almost gets emotional when he thinks about the help Dubbeldam and Horn provide. “Recently Jeroen was joking with me. He called me his joker. I told him that he was gonna make me cry. ‘It’s incredible that you are here, my friend,’ I told him. ‘Just that you are here, and that you help me, is so fantastic.’ They are amazing people and they know so much. It’s a privilege that they are with us. I think Israel made a very good decision.”
The Israeli team coaches are not the only ones Michan is very happy and impressed with. “The Israeli Equestrian Federation is also incredible to work with,” he says. “Thank God we have a lot of people supporting and helping the team. For the Olympics, I believe they have a good budget to pay for our costs and to go to the Tokyo, so they are doing a very good job.”
Regarding the performance of Team Israel, Michan is very clear: “I hope that in a few years Israel will be a little stone in the shoe of many and will be bothering other countries and winning some Nations Cups, and hopefully championships.”
𝐂𝐨𝐬𝐚 𝐍𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚
Horn and Dubbeldam both see Michan as one of Israel’s top riders. “Aby is a very good rider, very experienced and confident,” says Horn. “And his horse Cosa Nostra is a fantastic horse, that performs very consistently at the highest level.”
Dubbeldam agrees with Horn. “First of all, Aby is very pleasant and nice, personally, but also professionally. He has a huge talent and feeling in the ring, and he has the natural ability to improvise,” says Dubbeldam. “He is cool, doesn’t get nervous, and has a lot of experience, which is an asset for the whole team. His horse Cosa Nostra is a very talented mare, with a lot of quality. There is still room for improvement for both horse and rider, but hopefully, we get to work on that over the summer in Europe,” says Dubbeldam.
Michan found Cosa Nostra in Hungary as a 4-year-old. “My brother Daniel bought the mare and brought it to Mexico,” says Michan. “Mexico has a great infrastructure for young horses. There’s a big circuit for them. They do a lot of big shows around Mexico City, and young horses always go in the main ring. Cosa Nostra did the 5-, 6- and 7-year-olds there. Then she came here, to the U.S., and we put her up for sale. But in the end I was able to keep the mare with the help of some investors. The goal was always to take her to Tokyo. We are very close. I hope this year it will happen. The mare has a lot of quality. She is super, super careful, and very brave. I think she could do a very good job in Tokyo.”
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐨𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐓𝐨𝐤𝐲𝐨
But Michan knows how extremely difficult it is to make the team for the Olympics and to have the horse healthy, sound, and in top form at the right time. “Of course you never know for sure. It’s very difficult, but I think I have a great horse, and I am very excited,” he says. “My idea was to jump a little bit at the Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington, Florida, and then Hans will decide who will go to Europe. I think the plan is to do two Nations Cups there, and from there they will let us know who are the three and the reserve for Tokyo,” says Michan.
“If I go to Europe, I think I will take three horses. With the mare, I can do what Hans and Jeroen think I should do to build her up to Tokyo. Then I would try to bring a couple competitive horses to do the sport and maybe to sell.”
Although it’s still not 100 percent sure if the Olympic Games will take place this year, or if all the big shows in Europe will happen because of the uncertain circumstances regarding the EHV-1 virus, team coach Hans Horn will make sure everybody prepares as if the Olympics will continue. “Otherwise it doesn’t work,” he says. “It would be a disappointment if certain horse shows get canceled, but it would be a greater disappointment if we don’t prepare for them, and the horse show does not get canceled. It is something we would have to deal with as soon as we find out,” says Horn. “It’s a multi-year plan anyway. We have worked for several years to get to this level, and the icing on the cake should be the Olympic Games,” says Horn. “If the Olympics would be canceled, then that’s very unfortunate, but at least we have done everything in our power to perform well. The silver lining is that next year we’ll have the European Championships, and I assume those will happen. We need a team for those championships, so all our efforts won’t have been for nothing.”
𝐖𝐄𝐅
Michan hasn’t been competing much at this year’s Winter Equestrian Festival. “This year has been interesting because I had a nice group of horses at the end of last year, but I sold all of them. I think sales went up here because many people couldn’t travel to Europe because of COVID. They started to look for horses in America, so I sold all of them. I just kept Cosa Nostra.”
In the meantime, Michan worked on getting a whole new group of horses and did some catch riding. “I took Cosa Nostra over at the beginning of the year to do a 1.40m, and she went clear. Then I took her to the CSI4* and she went clear in all her three classes, I only had one down in the jump-off, but she jumped very well, so I’m happy.”
𝐏𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐝
Michan had an incident with one of his horses at the showgrounds. “It was not too long ago here at WEF,” he starts. “One of the horses came out of the ring, and right away she got a swollen leg. It didn’t look so nice. Since riders and horses that are registered to compete are protected by ShowPlus at WEF, I talked to the people of ShowPlus and was instructed to fill out the incident report form on the Showplus.com website. The veterinarian examination showed that it was the type of injury listed on the WEF ShowPlus Schedule of Benefits. As a result, I received a lump sum that helped pay for the vet’s evaluation & procedure. It was very easy."
Michan is very impressed with ShowPlus and the idea behind it. He has been closely involved since the beginning of the protection program. “I think the idea of ShowPlus is amazing. I’m very proud to be part of this team. It’s a novel opportunity for the sport. We all know that our sport is very high risk, so to have the horses and riders protected while they are competing is totally new and great. It’s peace of mind.”