story by Riata Cummings
Hailing from Dammeron Valley, Utah, Jocelynn Cornwall is a 17-year-old rodeo athlete. She is the daughter of Marci and Lance Cornwall and is the oldest of four children. Her younger siblings are Libby, and twins, Emma and Garrett. Together they enjoy spending time at the rodeos and going for horse rides. Jocelynn attends Enterprise High School where her favorite classes are woodshop and history. After high school she would like to go to college and hopes to pursue a career in physical therapy or other another medical practice.
Jocelynn has been riding horses for as long as she can remember, and she grew up competing in cow penning and sorting. When she was 10-years-old, her parents encouraged her to begin rodeoing as the “family guinea pig.” She now competes in the barrel racing, pole bending, breakaway roping, goat tying, and team roping. Her favorite event is the breakaway roping, and she loves “the feeling of roping a fast calf right out of the box.”
Jocelynn competes on four horses; Julie, a 6-year-old buckskin mare, serves as a goat tying and breakaway horse; Rico, the 16-year-old palomino pole horse; Ellie the 8-year-old barrel horse and Dunny the 8-year-old dun head horse. Jocelynn tries to practice every day, sometimes riding 5 or 6 horses in a day. She practices team roping and breakaway roping a few times a week and ropes or ties the dummy every day. Last year, Jocelynn was the all-around cowgirl and breakaway roping champion at the Panguitch Invitational Rodeo. She was also the 2019 Intermountain Icebreaker Pole Bending Champion. This year she hopes to go into state finals as one of the top 4 competitors in each event.
One of the hardest things Jocelynn ever had to do was retire her old barrel horse, Icee. “We were leading the state in junior high rodeo during 2015. Then, my mare got hurt and had a bone chip in one of her legs. The veterinarian couldn’t remove the bone chip, so we had to retire her early. Now she is a brood mare.” The experience eventually taught Jocelynn to depend on her other horses and to be a better horsewoman.
Jocelynn’s hero is her mother, who is “a hardworking, selfless and wonderful woman.” One day, Jocelynn would like to be as giving and happy as her mother. Jocelynn lives by the saying, “I believe in the person I want to become.” The quote reminds her that she can control her own fate. “Who I become is up to me. If I keep working hard at everything I do and keep trying to be a better person, my efforts will pay off.” One of Jocelynn’s greatest strengths is her strong work ethic. “Being a hard worker has helped me tremendously in the rodeo arena. Rodeoing takes a lot of effort, and only someone who works hard, tirelessly, can be successful at it.”
Jocelynn would like to thank her parents for hauling her the many miles to all the rodeos over the years and for supporting her rodeo dreams without hesitation.
