WINNER’S CIRCLE
EMMA DEJONG IS AN EQUESTRIAN WORLD CHAMP AT AGE 14
Writer / Christy Heitger-Ewing Photographer / Amy Counts
Emma DeJong was first introduced to horseback riding when she was four years old. “My grandma got me riding lessons with our neighbor,” she says. After a year of lessons, DeJong’s neighbor had a suggestion for her mom. “It’s time to buy a horse and build a barn,” the neighbor said. DeJong’s neighbor saw something in her that many others would come to see, including her trainer Tommy Sheets, a professional All-Around Horseman with
four decades of experience. He began training DeJong in 2019 and immediately knew she was something special. “She had so much raw talent,” he says. “You can’t create that. Her talent just shines, but she had a lot more talent than she had horse power.” Sheets proposed that DeJong get a new horse, one with little training so they could develop the horse they wanted. When DeJong first met Houston (a.k.a. Just Call Me Lazy), Sheets wasn’t sure the horse was a good fit for DeJong because he was aggressive, which can lead to riding difficulties. DeJong, however, loved Houston’s strong-willed nature as it mirrors her own.
“He had this fire in him, and I wanted a challenge,” DeJong says. It took a lot of work and patience taking Houston from a two-event to a sevenevent horse, but the pair did it, and DeJong has had an incredible year in circuit wins, having won titles at the Youth World, NSBA World and AQHYA World competitions. This makes her number one in the nation for All-Around. “Winning Youth World was a dream come true,” DeJong says. Sheets has never had a student win at the world level for equitation prior to DeJong. Typically, a youth rider will elect to focus on one event in order to excel in that particular field. DeJong, however, wanted
18 / GREENWOOD MAGAZINE / OCTOBER 2020 / atGreenwood.com
