The 2028 U.S. Eventing Team is already out there somewhere, and it’s up to us all to nurture their talent and their big dreams. “2028 Olympic Talent Watch” is an (adorable) new series in which we identify junior eventers who are already exhibiting the heart and the guts to lead American eventing to glory in the (distant) future. Any short-stirrup riders you know come to mind? Email us their story at [email protected].
Photo courtesy of Emily Oakes.
You might say that Carsynn Oakes, age 9, was born to ride. Shortly after she was born her [north Texas?] eventer mom Emily would tuck her into her stroller and take her to the barn with me where she would nap and play while Emily rode.
As she got older, being contained to the stroller was too much and Emily would allot her an end of the arena where she’d play in the dirt with dump trucks and shovels until she finished her ride. “She’d often trot, canter, and gallop in circles on her imaginary horses, Buck and Eyeball, or
get into trouble with her imaginary dog, Jumper, and cat, Meow-Meow,” Emily recalls.
By the time she was 3, she’d spend her time in the round pen with Pooka, the Oakes’ now 24-year-old Welsh/Pinto pony. Sweet Pooka soaked up the attention as she led him around, loved on him, or shared her bubbles with him.
Photo courtesy of Emily Oakes.
At the ripe old age of 4, Carsynn become one of the few people Emily trusted to feed her small herd as she knew the amount of feed, hay, and supplements needed for each horse in the barn. Emily recalls a time when she left Carsynn with her grandmother, as she had to go to a parent night for her older son. She was pleasantly surprised to come home and find the stalls clean and the horses happily munching on hay — Carsynn had coached her grandmother through evening chores.
Carsynn helping out around the barn:
“I also recall my dad’s surprise when, at 3 years old, she schooled him on why we fed beet pulp to my upper level eventer and it why it had to be soaked first. She also shared why he had to be given Cimetidines before each feeding. Dad was a bit flabbergasted that a 3 years old, she could even pronounce those words, much lesss know what they were!”
“Carsynn’s friends and teachers will only ever call her sweet, but at home we see a strong willed, hard-working, driven, perfectionist,” Emily says. “Carsynn has goals! She waited patiently to begin to work towards them while I navigated grad school and the horses rested for a few years. But now that the time has arrived, she not only helps care for her pony and the rest of the herd daily, but hurries to finish homework after school so that we can haul to an evening lesson or clean tack and bathe her itchy pony before a show. She’s the first to jump to help unload feed and never hesitates to lug a bag of bedding to a stall when needed.”
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- Photo courtesy of Emily Oakes.
Over the summer, the Oakes family returned from a nine-day vacation to find Carsynn’s pony dehydrated and colicking. Carsynn walked and stood with her pony under the fan in the barn aisle until the vet arrived. Dr. Mary, the vet on call, remembered caring for Pooka two years prior when he colicked in the spring, and shared that Carsynn had left her a letter that thanked them for taking care of her pony while she was at school and prepared them for what her pony Pooka would do, and how upset his much larger buddy Connell would be and that he would likely get in the way and try to help.
“She was right about all of it,” Dr. Mary recalled. After the vet oiled Pooka and gave him fluids, she went to Emily and said “He loves her. He really does.”
Photo courtesy of Emily Oakes.
“And she loves him equally as much,” Emily says. “They seem to know each other inside and out, and as his previous owner said in a post after their first horse trial together, ‘He looks out for her, and she looks out for him.’ Carsynn knows how lucky she is to have him and knows that no matter how wonderful her next pony is, and Cheese and Crackers is truly sweet and wonderful, no pony will ever be like Pooka to her.”
Currently, the Oakes are repainting standards and jump poles, and let Carsynn choose the colors. She insisted upon teal and purple, not only because they are her favorite, but because they honor her grandmother who recently lost her battle with ovarian cancer.
“Grandmommy wanted nothing more than to see her girl ride her pony and loved seeing the confidence that blossomed in Carsynn as soon as she began regular lessons,” Emily says. “I remember Beverly telling me how she held back tears one evening that she and Carsynn came upon a jumper show on TV and enjoyed it together. ‘Someday, you’re going to watch me do that, Grandmommy.’ I hope her colors never change and that she always rides in honor of her Grandmommy.”
Carsynn has had a busy fall, passing her D2 rating with flying colors as a member of Silver Stirrups Pony and preparing to go for her D3 rating in December. This young lady works hard and she is one tough cookie!
