Holly Corcoran and Poete. Credit Becky Pearman
Holly Corcoran was destined to be an endurance rider, even though that destiny took a while to reveal itself. “When I was young, my family showed Morgan horses,” she says. She literally started on horseback as a toddler, and she recalls as a teenager riding her family’s horses for multi-hour trail rides. “Then I’d go back to the barn, get another horse and head out again,” she says. When she had kids of her own, horses were still in the picture as they were involved in 4-H and showing. But she never felt the show ring was right for her, even though she still wanted horses to be part of her life. Then, after a 15-year hiatus from horses, destiny came knocking.
“In 2003, I stumbled on it (endurance competition), and thought, for me, that’s a good fit.” She immersed herself in learning about it, and at her first competition, a 25-mile adventure, she learned that mentoring and reaching out to others are integral to the sport. “I met up with more experienced people at my first ride, and they helped me,” she says. She finished 46th, with a time of five hours and 45 seconds.
Since then, Corcoran has logged thousands of miles on horseback, in places as exotic as Dubai and as familiar as the trails near her home in Effort, PA. Later this month, she and her 14-year-old Arabian, Poete will be part of the USA team going to the Longines Fédération Équestre International, (FEI) Endurance World Championship in San Rossore, Italy. One of the people on the team, Hanna Weightman, a 22 year old senior at Stockton University in New Jersey, will be riding Corcoran’s other Arabian, 10-year-old Poetrie. The two horses are ¾ siblings.
The Estate Where Medici’s Hunted
San Rossore, outside the iconic city of Pisa, is a magnet for equestrian sports. The park will be off-limits to everyone but competitors, support crew and race staff. It retains the pristine character that once attracted the Medici family--scions of European royalty, popes and supporters of Renaissance masters. They used the area as a hunting reserve. It is still a popular tourist destination, as well as a world-famous horseracing center.
The 160 km Endurance World Championship racecourse sounds like heaven on earth. The FEI website describes the course this way: “The track, enclosed between the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west, the Arno river to the south and the Serchio to the north, is characterized by an alternation of various terrains: sand, grass and ground, ideal for the comfort of the horse.”
Who wouldn’t fight for the chance to ride there? Steeped in history, awash in the trappings of privilege and state-of-the-art equine care, San Rossore waits—for history to be made. Corcoran, a formidable endurance competitor, may just make that history. Her record speaks eloquently. She and her horses have won 10 of 12 100-mile rides between 2018 and 2020. In January 2020 Poete was ranked first in the FEI World Endurance Ranking and Poetrie was ranked seventh.
Not an Ordinary CPA
Holly Corcoran is not your average Certified Public Accountant (CPA). She’s not your average trail rider, either. In fact, there’s not a lot about Corcoran that is average. She is both an intense competitor and a generous mentor, helping novice endurance riders learn the sport. She believes that there are important parallels between success in her business life and in her competitive life—the importance of strategy, determination and dealing with details. It’s not like she’s going to 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-security, 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 getting horses ready to compete is critical. “Basically what I found over the years through trial and error is that they are literally 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 Rossore 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 recovery 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 lameness, 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 Brazilian 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 endurance 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 competing 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 Reynolds 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, airfare 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 contributions may be made through a Go Fund Me account.