May 2021 Issue

Page 4 May 2021 EAST COAST EQUESTRIAN Tell our advertisers you found them in East Coast Equestrian. BLACK’S LIVESTOCK -The Next Pasture - Where the grass is always green, lush & stirrup high Individual Horse & Pet Cremation Standard Mortality 24 hour service available John E. Black: 610.220.5262 Matthew Hoffman: 610.656.3258 Office: 610.584.4482 Fax: 610.584.9111 BLACK’S LIVESTOCK P.O. Box 662 Skippack, PA 19472 www.nextpasture.com Local Equestrian Heads for Endurance World Championship in Italy just hop on a plane with her horse (although she would very much like to be a groom on the plane that’s taking the horses!) and fly off to Tuscany. There’s the issue of bio-se- curity, and ensuring that the horses have the health documents required. “I’m meeting with the vet who is doing the preliminary paperwork. The horse goes into a brief quarantine before the flight,” she says. “There’s no quarantine when we get to Europe, but there will be three days quarantine in Miami on return. That’s the technical stuff. Everything else,” she says, “is managing the horse. I’m going to be doing a lot of massage, acupuncture, everything I can do to put them on the plane in the best situation.” Corcoran says that get- ting horses ready to compete is critical. “Basically what I found over the years through trial and error is that they are literally (Continued from page 1) in some form of work at least six days a week. That could be walking. One to two conditioning rides—10-20 miles. Working on the cardio. I also take dressage lessons to try to help them use their bodies better on the trail and in general.” Before COVID, she says she used to spend a lot of time at the gym. “Now I do about two-three miles a day walk/running. I also do isometrics and weight training. Right now I have three horses and it’s just me so I’m pretty much riding every day, too.” Around the World on Horseback Endurance riding is a lot more involved than hopping on a horse and riding until you reach the finish line. There are rules that protect both the horse and the rider. And there are frequent vet checks of the horses. Races are divided into loops, or phases. In (FEI) events, the loops are at minimum 20 km and 40 km maximum. There are six phases on four different loops for the San Ros- sore event. The longest is 32.3 km; the shortest is 20 km. The FEI says there will be 16 check points on the course, manned by personnel from the Italian Red Cross. There will also be 33 water points. After completing a loop, the horse and rider enter the recov- ery area, where the horse’s pulse rate is checked. The pulse rate must be 64 bpm or less within 15 minutes of finishing the loop, before the horse can enter the vetting area. In the vetting area, the horse is checked by a course veterinarian to ensure the horse is not showing any signs of lame- ness, that there are no sores from the saddle or other tack, and that the horse is not dehydrated. “The vetting is very strict. If there is a question about lameness, the horse is rechecked before we go out or the horse is pulled from the competition,” Corcoran says. The recovery areas are opportunities for riders to rest, hydrate and eat. It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement and focus entirely on the horse. “In 2014 I was an invited rider in Brazil,” Corcoran says. “It was literally an invitation by a Brazil- ian FEI rider who was looking for a horse for the Pan Am Games in 2015,” she says. It was planned to be a reciprocal arrangement, and the Brazilian rider would ride one of Corcoran’s horses in the games that were scheduled for Canada in 2015. “That was one of the lessons I had to learn. I had to pull from the fourth loop phase because I was dehydrated.” And then the Canadian Pan Ams were canceled. She qualified for the Dubai competition in 2017, by virtue of her ranking among the United States Equestrian Federation’s (USEF) top five riders. “It was truly amazing. You go out, once you’ve seen one loop, they all look the same,” she says. “It made me grateful for the variety here in the United States. But I was grateful for the experience. It was just amazing.” Endurance and Enduring In 2003 when Corcoran “stumbled” onto the sport of en- durance riding, the thought of one day competing in Dubai or Brazil or Italy was not the motivating force. Instead, she was returning to her days riding her family’s Morgan horses on endless trail rides. By 2008, after winning a lot of endurance competitions here, she was setting ambitious goals for herself—she wanted to represent the United States internationally. In 2009, her world was upended when her teenage son committed suicide. Grieving this profound loss, she found solace in riding her horses, and compet- ing again. “It was very hard to open up after his death,” she says. “But I think it’s important to honor his memory and let others know that have suffered similar loss that they’re not alone.” Help Team USA Corcoran, Weightman of New Jersey, Jeremy Reyn- olds and Cheryl van Dusen of Florida and Karen di Camillo of New Mexico make up the team. Because the riders are responsible for paying their own ways—shipping the horses, air- fare for riders and crew to Italy, stabling, etc., they are seeking contributions from the public to help defray expenses. People wishing to make a tax-deductible contribution can make checks payable to American Horse Trial Foundation, Inc., and send them to Holly Corcoran, 10251 NE 125th Ave., Archer, FL 32618. Or non-tax-deductible contribu- tions may be made through a Go Fund Me account. https://www. gofundme.com/f/wec-2020-fund raiserholly-corcoran?qid=0a 80389d3a1533840e53b8d fa8720a92