Race Day with Endurance Elite Holly Corcoran

How she prepares and conditions her horses, how she handles race day and what steps she takes to help her horses recover from a 100-mile race.

Pre-Race

Corcoran estimates that the true preparation for a solid 100-mile endurance horse takes about three years, requiring not only the correct condition and stamina but also the mental fortitude to complete the race. It takes a lot of time and training to build the base that successful endurance horses need. Once ready, Corcoran aims to have her endurance horse peak about a week before the race, using a 10- to 15-mile ride at race speed (about 9 miles per hour). “Some horses that are prone to tying-up, or those with peak fitness who are more likely to tie-up, need to work in some capacity every day up to the ride,” says Corcoran. “The day before a race, I usually ride six or seven miles at speed to make sure my horse's muscles are loose and ready.”

Corcoran recommends fine-tuning nutrition to keep the ideal weight as fitness and training increases and for horses coming up the ranks. For pre-race nutrition, she says: “As we get closer to races or when we are traveling, I will begin to eliminate grains and use a high-fiber, low-starch concentrate feed. I minimize starch leading up to a race and give free choice hay with small amounts of alfalfa and wet beet pulp with a 30 percent balancer.” Corcoran supplements daily with Platinum Performance ® Equine, magnesium and salt. “My veterinarian recommended Platinum Performance for the colic coverage, and I found using it eliminated a lot of individual supplements I was giving separately,” she says. During heavy work, Corcoran also uses vitamin E and a B-vitamin complex.

Pre-Race Recommendations:

• Light training 4 to 5 days before a race
• Hydrate and provide plain, white salt to encourage drinking
• Promote high forage intake with good quality hay
• Regular feeding to ensure that liver and muscle glycogen stores are optimal
• Supplement with a comprehensive omega-3 fat supplement and antioxidants
• Avoid significant feed changes. If you think that you might use alfalfa or any grain or sweet feed to help refuel during the race, start introducing it at least a couple weeks ahead of time, so that it is not an abrupt change
• No grain or concentrate within 3 hours of race
• Small amounts of hay — less than 5 pounds or grazing pasture 1 to 3 hours before race. If horse is used to alfalfa, add a small amount for possible digestive-buffering advantages

During the Race

The morning of a race, Corcoran will feed some alfalfa along with a low-starch, wet breakfast. During the ride, she recommends having food options that they will willingly eat, including: sweet feed, wet beet pulp, alfalfa, apples, carrots, etc. Some horses are picky eaters about what they eat during a race, so it is important to provide them something tempting that they will consume for sheer calories: “Because they are burning through so much energy after the first loop, I give them what they can and will eat. Many people offer more hay. It depends on the individual horse and what they will eat well to sustain them.”

Corcoran's horses receive branched-chain amino acids and electrolytes mid-loop and at every hold on the course after they have water. There is water available every five miles throughout each race course either from natural water sources or in water troughs to encourage hydration.

During the Race Recommendations:

• Provide water every 20 to 30 minutes; hydration is always critical, and especially in hot, humid weather
• Quality, palatable grass hay, can be mixed with alfalfa, and forage is often soaked to increase hydration
• Feed what your horse will eat, and offer things it is accustomed to eating: quality feeds to tempt consumption or mashes with alfalfa meal, wheat bran, grains, rice bran, etc.
• Graze grass, if available
• Administer electrolytes. Add to feed as long as the horse is accustomed to eating it. Electrolyte oral slurries after horse has eaten and had water

Post-Race

Immediately after the race, horses should receive free choice water and hay. Corcoran adds feeds back in from her regular program and may increase quantity to help regain weight lost during the competition.

Corcoran poultices and wraps her horse's legs after. She uses a BEMER (Bio-electric magnetic) blanket to support circulation and aid muscle recovery. In the days that follow, “My rule is 1 day off per 10 miles,” she says. After a 100-mile ride, her horses have a couple weeks of rest in pasture turnout, including daily checks for swelling or stiffness. After the rest period, horses will return to work slowly, usually on a walker. Then, they will start back to two or three hours of walking followed by conditioning rides twice a week along with dressage lessons in preparation for the next competition.

Post-Race Recommendations:

• Provide fresh, clean water immediately after finishing
• After water consumption, give electrolytes, preferably in feed. Supplement electrolytes (sodium, chloride, potassium) for at least 24 hours
• Free choice hay
• Feed wet meals as a mash or concentrate
• Light exercise for several days as walking or turnout
• Return to normal diet