Photo courtesy of Corey Jarman.
My name is Corey Jarman, I am 15 years old, and I am a C1 member of the Radnor Hunt Pony Club in Malvern, Pennsylvania. My riding career began about 10 years ago when I fell in love of horses the moment I sat in the saddle for the first time in a lesson.
Once I was older I learned that my mom was a big-time rider and had even made it to the Olympic trials. My mom shows true resilience in that she is not able to ride anymore but continues to help me, even though I know she misses riding very much. Being an equestrian has made me see who I truly want to become versus who people want me to become.
My mom introduced me to riding at a young age and while I may not have always appreciated it, I know now that it was for a good reason. This year is my freshman year in high school. I have made tough decisions and sometimes they may have been the wrong ones, but I feel more confident and more determined to finish the year strong.
When I decided I wanted to focus on eventing before high school, I remembered a girl who had passed away at my school. Her name was Evie O’Brien. Evie was killed while she was jogging by a car who, by no fault of his own, hit her.
When I was little Evie looked after me when my parents or family had a dinner or party to go to. She was the sweetest person I knew; after only knowing me for a month she gave me a bracelet, and this meant the world to me. When I got older Evie and I would talk about things that were going on in the world and at school, and when she passed it devastated me to realize that I wouldn’t be able to talk to her ever again. I decided before the eventing season started that I was going to dedicate each and every event to Team Evie.
Photo courtesy of Corey Jarman.
My 2015 eventing season was a struggle. I had many rails in both recognized and unrecognized events, but whether it was one rail or four I still gave my best and tried to recover. The horse I was riding was Hey There Delilah, my first-ever competition horse. Delilah was a 16-year-old, 15-hand Quarter Horse that barrel raced when she was young. She was trained well in certain areas but not so much in others. For example Delilah had great barn manners, but when you went to get on her she would try to leave the mounting block without you.
Even with her quirks she and I bonded better than I could have imagined. To start off the season I competed in two unrecognized events at Plantation Field. I placed seventh the first time around, and at the next one I placed second. Not only did this show me that I did have something to give back to Evie, it proved that with a fair amount of hard work and effort I could do this!
After a summer of very successful jumpers we started to compete in recognized events. These competitions were the hardest I had faced and I felt like I was letting Evie down every time something went wrong. By the end of the season I was having numerous rails and once I even went off course. After a hard day at an event, someone came up to me and said, “You have put a lot of work into this mare, haven’t you. Not knowing this mare’s background, this may come off as strange, but you obviously made her into a great little eventer and she tries her best to please you. Please don’t be discouraged when she can’t deliver what you want — this is how you become not a good rider, but a great rider.”
Immediately I let Delilah do her thing while I had fun and remembered Evie. This season, I plan to wear lots of green and pink in remembrance of her.
I now have a new horse named Rasta (who has a lot of nicknames like Bob, Pasta and Risky Biscuit). As I gear up I try my best not to cry and I try to think how Evie would be there encouraging me from the sidelines. Just imagining her standing near me and encouraging me is something that makes me try even harder. I would give up anything to see her once more. Every time I step onto the cross country course, I have determination and always make myself proud. I miss Evie everyday and hope to represent her well these next few years.
