In a field beside a winding road in Hanover County, tall oak trees shade horses seeking shelter from pesky flies and the summer heat. One horse is young and untrained, the other at least 21 and past her prime as a star in Richmond horse shows.

The older horse is Rhapsody, beloved pet of World Wrestling Entertainment women's champion Mickie James, who grew up in Montpelier and graduated from Patrick Henry High School.

Since her days of winning ribbons in local horse shows a decade ago, James has mastered another ring, rising to the top of the sports entertainment industry and earning international recognition. But she tries to return to Hanover once a week to ride Rhapsody and to help train her filly, Bunny, so that one day James can return to equestrian competition.

"I'm still in it, just not actively in the show rings," James said in late July after returning from a wrestling show in Cleveland. "I fully intend to run a horse farm once my wrestling slows down . . . I would hope to train kids and have an avenue to ride."

Unlike many Divas, as WWE women are known, James climbed to the top without modeling or acting experience. She mastered pro wrestling and advanced through the minor leagues, working waitress jobs on the side, sleeping in her car and, when no other women were in her class, wrestling men.

"We had this one guy named 'The Largest Man on the Planet,' her former trainer, Dory Funk Jr., recalled. "I don't think she ever wrestled him, but many times she wrestled guys who outweighed her by at least 100 pounds."

James grew up in Montpelier with her sister, Latoya, and her step-brother, Ben Knuckles.

"[Mickie] was quite the nerd in school," Latoya said. "I barely made it out of high school, but she tried to graduate with as many credits as she could. She's really very smart."

James' favorite WWE character is "Macho Man" Randy Savage and often, after watching him on Monday nights, she dropped an elbow on her brother on the trampoline out back or wrestled her father, Stuart, in the house. But her first love was riding horses at the Doswell farm of her grandmother, Irene Hines.

Most days after school, Mickie and Latoya would head to their grandmother's to groom the horses boarding there and to ride Rhapsody.

Once she graduated from Patrick Henry in 1998, James decided to chase another love: wrestling. She enrolled in the KYDA Pro wrestling school in Fairfax, moved into her grandmother's basement and took a waitress job at a truck stop. She commuted to shows around the state, barely breaking even on her cut of the profit.

She met Funk at a training session in Northern Virginia where WWE women's star Lita gave a talk on how to make it to the big time. Lita had trained with Funk and was promoted to the WWE after Funk sent in a highlight tape of her performances. Funk saw similar potential in James.

"Mickie James was extremely aggressive and mixed it up every bit as much as Lita did with the men," Funk said. "With her and Lita both, it was their attitude. They were gonna bust their tail and not ask for any favors."

James continued to work the wrestling circuit from Maryland Championship Wrestling to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, appearing under the stage name Alexis Laree. All the while, she sent highlight videos to WWE, where top women contenders can earn hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in salary and commissions.

Finally, WWE signed her to a developmental contract in 2003 and sent her to Louisville to train in its farm league. She excelled and came close several times to appearing on the weekly televised RAW programs, only to be left out because of time constraints.

"I thought I was annoying them so much that I'd never make it," she said. "The time I got the call that I'd be on [TV], I screamed and I cried. I didn't want to call anybody because I didn't want [WWE] to call and say they'd changed their mind."

They didn't change their mind and last October, James wrestled under her real name, playing the role of an obsessed fan of then-WWE women's champion Trish Stratus. She lost that night, but in April she beat Stratus at WrestleMania 22 to win the title.

In the house she grew up in, her mother, Sandra Knuckles, keeps albums stacked on one side of her living room with pictures of Mickie riding in English classic horse shows. James' wrestling ring attire of low-cut tops and thigh-high skirts is a huge fashion jump from her formal equestrian attire.

On the other side of the room are stacks of VHS tapes of James' rise in WWE. A tape is added weekly after her latest match.

Sandra Knuckles, a real estate agent, recently sold a house to James and her fiance, Ken Doane, also a WWE wrestler, in King William County.

"She didn't really grow up rich," her mother said as she extended her arms and looked around her living room. . . . But she always said, she was gonna be famous."