{"id":371474,"date":"2026-06-23T13:45:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T13:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/371474\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T13:45:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T13:45:12","slug":"from-colombia-to-california-how-isabella-munoz-jaramillo-earned-the-ride-on-ebay-eventing-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/371474\/","title":{"rendered":"From Colombia to California: How Isabella Mu\u00f1oz Jaramillo Earned the Ride on Ebay | Eventing Nation"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Isabella Mu\u00f1oz Jaramillo and Ebay. Photo by Tina Fitch Photography.<\/p>\n

For those who followed Helen Alliston\u2019s career through the upper levels of eventing, Ebay is one horse that, once he got into your head, you couldn\u2019t really forget about. His upper-level career with the California-based Helen \u2014 one half of the Alliston Equestrian pair that also includes former British-now-USA rider James Allison \u2014 culminated in a win at the USEA American Eventing Championships Adequan Advanced Final in 2025, and he\u2019d competed through the CCI4* level with Helen in the irons. When he stepped back from the upper levels that same year, it felt like the closing of a chapter.<\/p>\n

But at the Woodside Spring Horse Trials this spring, there he was again. The rider on his back, however, was someone new: a small, serious teenager named Isabella Mu\u00f1oz Jaramillo, navigating her first recognized event on a once-in-a-lifetime schoolteacher of a horse.<\/p>\n

The story of how Isabella ended up in the saddle of one of Helen\u2019s most accomplished event horses begins, improbably, with ChatGPT, funny enough.<\/p>\n

When Gloria and Andres Mu\u00f1oz Jaramillo began preparing to relocate their family from Colombia to Northern California for Andres\u2019s work in the pharmaceutical industry, they did what any modern parent might do: they started researching. Gloria pulled up ChatGPT and started asking where a young eventer could get serious training in the Bay Area. The algorithm pointed, consistently, to one name: Alliston Equestrian.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found James and Helen in three different ways,\u201d Gloria recalls. ChatGPT surfaced them. So did a hunter-jumper trainer the family cold-called. So did a retired horsewoman in Walnut Creek who spent an hour talking with Gloria, felt a kinship with Isabella\u2019s story, and then went home and emailed her own network for recommendations. Every thread led back to\u00a0the Allistons.<\/p>\n

So one Monday in January 2025, Gloria and Andres drove out to the farm unannounced, walked in, and found Helen and James riding side by side. Gloria pulled out her phone and showed Helen videos of Isabella riding in Colombia. She\u2019d started off at a riding school and had expressed a desire to start eventing.<\/p>\n

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Helen Alliston and Ebay. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.<\/p>\n

\u201cHelen said, \u2018Yes, awesome, she can come,’\u201d Gloria recalls. When she called Isabella with the news \u2014 that she was standing at the barn of James Alliston \u2014 Isabella\u2019s response was immediate. She already knew who he was. Her trainer in Colombia had followed the international circuit closely and had sent her videos of James competing at CHIO Aachen a few years earlier. Her parents, meanwhile, had never heard of him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe said, oh, okay then,\u201d Gloria laughs. The matter was settled.<\/p>\n

The family moved to California in May 2025, settling close enough to the barn that the commute is twenty minutes, which was a deliberate choice. Andres drives an hour, minimum, each way to San Mateo for work. Nobody in the family complained.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, it\u2019s very important,\u201d Gloria says of her two children. \u201cTo have sport in their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Helen had tried to retire Ebay. She had, in her words, \u201cdone the dramatic Facebook post.\u201d She moved him out to pasture with James\u2019s older horses, Jumbo\u2019s Jake and Parker, and thought that was that.<\/p>\n

Life as a pasture pet didn\u2019t take for Ebay \u2014 a story we hear often for recently retired horses.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wasn\u2019t eating. He wasn\u2019t super comfortable around\u00a0the other horses,\u201d Helen recalls. \u201cAnd he was losing a lot of weight.\u201d So, she brought him back in and found herself at a crossroads. She had done some dressage with him pre-retirement, schooling Fourth Level work, and had even done a show or two. But it didn\u2019t truly suit either of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to a couple shows and it was just wasn\u2019t really my scene,\u201d she says (relatable, to be honest). \u201cI didn\u2019t think it was fair to him to have him just in a stall when I was only riding him. It just didn\u2019t seem quite right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ebay, as many other upper-level horses in retirement, is a horse who needs a job and people around him. \u201cHe wants people around him all the time,\u201d Helen says. \u201cSo this is ideal for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

So when Isabella\u2019s first lease at the barn ended and the question arose of what came next, the answer arrived organically. Isabella had spent months proving herself: showing up early, grooming, mucking, helping with therapy treatments, and generally doing whatever needed doing without being asked. Helen had told the family upfront that not just anyone would get to ride her good horses.<\/p>\n

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Isabella hangs with her best bud, Ebay.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe work ethic\u2026you don\u2019t really get that anymore,\u201d Helen says. \u201cShe just wants to be around the horses. She wants to learn. She\u2019s just got a really good attitude that you want to support.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was one other thing Helen remembered. On the very first day the family had visited the farm, Andres had looked at her with a quiet smile and said something she hadn\u2019t forgotten: \u201cYou\u2019re gonna want her to work for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Isabella, the challenge of riding a finely-tuned horse has become the education. Coming from Colombia, where grooms tack up and untack without the rider touching the horse, she has had to learn everything from scratch. And she prefers it this way.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack in Colombia, I didn\u2019t really ever tack up my own horse,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd I really wanted to be able to do that and spend more time.\u201d Here in California, she works off part of the lease. She hacks Ebay constantly, ices his legs, and studies every lesson she can. Going to the barn six or seven times a week during the school year isn\u2019t a sacrifice, it\u2019s just where she wants to be.<\/p>\n

The partnership clicked in the way these things do when the fit is right. \u201cYou can truly tell he loves what he does,\u201d Isabella says. \u201cThat\u2019s just great to feel and to know. He\u2019s allowed me to learn more than I have to worry about him actually knowing. He\u2019s a trained horse. He\u2019s allowed me to grow better in dressage and show jumping and focus more on what I have to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Woodside, she got a taste of what it means to ride a horse who genuinely loves his job. \u201cHe would let you know that he loved it,\u201d she says. \u201cYou\u2019d just feel him excited. But it was never in a way that I would feel scared. He would never want to hurt you or do anything to put you in a dangerous situation. That is really good to feel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gloria watched all of it: the cross-country schooling at the crack of dawn, the saddle-hauling, the leg-icing, the accumulation of skill. \u201cShe reflects a person who has a real dream, a real passion,\u201d Gloria says. \u201cShe doesn\u2019t think of anything different than horses.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTen years ago, we never imagined Isabella riding in the United States,\u201d Gloria\u00a0continues. \u201cAnd it\u2019s not only riding, it\u2019s training every day with professional riders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Helen, for her part, just wants to watch it keep going and enjoy the ride.\u00a0\u201cSince I can\u2019t really retire him, apparently!\u201d she\u00a0laughs.\u00a0\u201cI want him to last a long time. And I think he\u2019ll enjoy doing this with her for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Isabella Mu\u00f1oz Jaramillo and Ebay. Photo by Tina Fitch Photography. For those who followed Helen Alliston\u2019s career through…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-371474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}