When Cornelia Fletcher’s five-star mare Daytona Beach 8 saw the trailer bound for Rocking Horse in Ocala, FL, in late January, she all but dragged her groom Natalie up the ramp. It had been nearly a year since the 16-year-old Oldenburg mare (Duke of Hearts—Sandance, by Santander H) had done a full event, and as Fletcher did her 40-minute trot sets and added galloping back into “Daytona’s” schedule, the mare knew something was on the horizon.
“She was so ready to go,” said Cornelia. “She was like, ‘I knew it, I was going to a horse show!’ ”
At the end of 2024, Cornelia was riding a high. After some time out of the saddle when she and her husband Jacob Fletcher welcomed their daughter Sparrow Fletcher in June, Cornelia organized her fall schedule with The Event at TerraNova CCI4*-L (Florida) as the primary goal. She hoped to get back into a grove with Daytona and prove they hadn’t lost their edge. It was a banner weekend with the pair taking the win.
It was followed, however, by disappointment. Instead of making plans for their return to the five-star level, Cornelia began developing a rehab plan for Daytona. While the scans never showed a core lesion, Cornelia’s veterinary team diagnosed the mare with a tendon strain, which they attributed to a bad step.
Cornelia Fletcher and Daytona Beach 8 en route to the CCI4*-L win at TerraNova in 2024. Photo by Shannon Brinkman
“She probably had landed on cross-country,” Cornelia described. “It didn’t come up until a few days later – but she landed and twisted before her whole body had organized, so it was a twisting injury.”
It was a tough blow, and Cornelia debated what the best course of action was for the mare who’d taken her to a top-10 finish at Burghley in their debut at the level.
“I never said it out loud, but I toyed around with: she’s won a four-star, maybe I should let her bow out of the sport? But she loves it, and she doesn’t want to do that; she wants to work,” Cornelia said.
Cornelia took her time bringing Daytona back following the injury and was hopeful that they’d get to a few horse trials last fall. But as often happens with teenage horses, other maintenance issues presented themselves. While they were easily fixable, it took time, and Cornelia didn’t want to run Daytona before she was back to as perfect as possible. So they stuck with running through the Preliminary level dressage test at events Cornelia was competing at anyway.
As the Florida season approached however, it seemed time to run Daytona again, and thus the fitness work resumed, a sign the intelligent mare understood to mean she was about to have fun again. They had an easy Prelim run at Rocking Horse before stepping it up to Intermediate at Ocala Winter I, two weeks later.
“She was thrilled,” Cornelia said of that outing. “She dragged me around the entire thing. She could have done it without me. She felt really good – obviously a little bit needs to be smoothed out with more practice and knocking some more rust off, but she was on it, so I feel pretty good.”
With the initial runs under their belt, Cornelia is now looking towards the future which she hopes includes some four-stars in preparation for their fourth CCI5* start, but she won’t push it. She’s got plans A, B and C, which she’ll pivot to as Daytona tells her what’s best, whether that’s a five-star, applying for a European tour, or spending more time in the jumper ring with the goal of competing in a national grand prix. While Jacob, who show jumps as well as events, has ridden Daytona in a regional grand prix, it would be a first for Cornelia.
“He did a grand prix with her when I was pregnant, and she was like top of his string,” she said. “He was obsessed with her and had so much fun doing that. Since then, he’s been encouraging it. He helps me with the eventing, but I would say the show jumping is starting to rub off on me. We’ll see—I love eventing too much to give it up 100%, so I’ll probably do a bit of both.”
While Daytona was recovering from her injury, Cornelia had a bit of a lighter year herself. She’d sold some of her other upper level horses, and with Daytona out, it left her with a bit of a gap horse wise as she brought along her young horses. She also admitted it was mentally hard finding a groove again postpartum without being able to chase her own goals.
But all the same, she very much enjoys the process of bringing the younger horses along. That includes C’est Bon PS, or “Romeo,” who she describes as seriously cool and very quirky and right up her alley. He won the one-star at TerraNova last fall, and she’s planning a season at two-star this year with him. She’s also got Candy Park, who she is still getting to know, but one she hopes to take to Maryland in the fall for the CCI3*-L.
“I do really enjoy [bringing them along,]” she continued. “It’s hard to not have an older horse to keep that edge going while you do the younger horses, but I much prefer to bring my horses along so that by the time they get to three-star I know them so well. I take a really long time as a person to get to know a horse, so if I do that as a 4- or 5-year-old, that’s my preference.”
Regardless of what she ultimately ends up doing with Daytona this year, she’ll be doing it with Sparrow, who will be 2 in June, in tow. Cornelia says their daughter is already horse obsessed, and has her own pony, Honey, with whom she’s practicing for her leadline debut at the World Equestrian Center Ocala, next year.
“We won’t push the horses on her, but she’s a horse person—she’s barely a year and a half, but she clucks at them,” said Cornelia. “It’s so in her blood, so I’ll be surprised if she doesn’t do it.”
