Cornelia Fletcher: Horses & Family

By Laura Scaletti

Portraits by Kacy Brown

Cornelia Fletcher has always known she wanted a life filled with horses and family. A young eventing trainer and rider, Cornelia was determined not to let her professional goals derail her desire to start a family. In June 2024, that wish came true when Cornelia gave birth to her daughter, Sparrow.

“Even from the beginning of being a professional, I knew I wanted a family. It’s always been important to me to have that added dimension in life other than just solely living for competition results. I’m turning 27 and I feel like it was the right decision to start a family while I’m young,” Cornelia said. “No matter the results I have at a horse show, when I come home, Sparrow is still going to love me, and I just love that!”

Two and a half weeks after having Sparrow, Cornelia was back in the saddle and began preparing for the fall events. “When I stopped riding in January, I had made my goal competing at the Event at TerraNova in November. I just worked backwards from that competition to develop a show schedule that would allow me to compete in the bare minimum of events to be prepared for a big one like TerraNova,” she said.

Cornelia capped off what was already a fantastic 2024 with a win in the CCI4*L aboard her longtime partner Daytona Beach 8. She proved that with the right team behind you, you can have it all: horses and family. “It was a week to remember,” Cornelia said.

Horse Bug Activated

When Cornelia was 8 years old, her family moved from New York to Hamilton, Massachusetts, across the street from the former USET headquarters. After wearing her non-horsey parents down, Cornelia was able to convince her parents to indulge her horse obsession. “I was born with the horse bug,” she said.

To begin her equestrian education, Cornelia’s mom signed her up for “proper” hunter-jumper lessons. By the time she was 9 years old, Cornelia got her first pony and competed in her first event within a year. “I think I fell in love with the sport, basically riding around the countryside. We’d hack around in a group of ponies and see all of these old-fashioned cross country jumps and the old track USET used to gallop on and it was so steeped in history, it really intrigued me,” Cornelia said.

Cornelia knew eventing was going to be her sport when she watched the Groton Horse Trials for the first time at age 8. “I stood at the water jump and watched the horses come galloping by. I was like, I don’t know what this is, but this is what I want to do,” she said.

Today, Cornelia knows her 8-year-old self made the right decision. “There is nothing more awe-inspiring than watching a horse go cross country. I still love the adrenaline of being in the start box and then taking off to gallop across the course,” she said.

While in middle school, Cornelia began working with Babette Lenna. Babette helped Cornelia find her first Advanced horse, Sir Patico MH, aka Hugo. The duo would go on to have a long-term partnership together. “I got him when he was 6 and I was 13. I ended up taking him to train with Sharon White while I worked for her for several years. I did my first four-stars on him, and we had a lot of success together including an individual bronze at the 2017 North American Youth Championship, and he took me to my European debut at Blenheim,” Cornelia said. “We were getting ready to make our five-star debut at the 2020 Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event, before it was canceled due to the COVID pandemic.”

Sharon was instrumental in helping Cornelia advance in the eventing world. “Sharon’s amazingly good at producing horses and young riders. She sat me on some good horses and did a lot to build my horsemanship and knowledge,” Cornelia said.

Choosing A Path

A history buff with special interest in the Civil and Revolutionary Wars, Cornelia applied early decision and was planning on going to Gettysburg College in 2016. “I thought, What better place to study history than in Gettysburg with Civil War history surrounding me?” she said.

At the same time Cornelia was making her plans to hit the books, she had two great horses and was getting ready to compete at Young Riders in the one- and two-star. “I had a heart to heart with Sharon and we talked about what I should do. I decided that I would take a gap year and use that time to figure out if I was good enough to make it as a professional,” Cornelia said. “2017 was an amazing year, and I just never went back to school.”

While carving out her own path, Cornelia met Jacob Fletcher at the 2019 USET Under 25 Training Sessions in Ocala, Florida. Two months later Jacob and Cornelia began dating, and they married in 2023. “I knew that I needed to find a partner who really understood my horse world because that was going to be one of the biggest parts of my life. I’m very grateful to find someone like Jacob, who not only understands it, but is part of the world himself,” Cornelia said.

In 2019, Cornelia decided it was time to hang her own shingle and started her business, Cornelia Dorr Equestrian. “Coming out of a program like Sharon White’s gave me the confidence to know how to create a weekly program for horses, train and manage people. She really gave me a great springboard going forward,” Cornelia said.

Already dating Jacob at the time, Cornelia began renting stalls from him at his Ocala, Florida, farm. “I rented six stalls from him and opened my own small operation where I focus on developing, training and sales horses. I’ve always been small, however today I’ve shifted to having my own horses, with a few exceptions for close friends,” she said.

Continuing Education

Although Cornelia ended up choosing horses over college, that didn’t dampen her desire to learn. She wanted to explore the European way of training event horses. “I think of the UK as the mecca of eventing and I think there’s no better place to go. The Brits live and breathe everything eventing,” she said.

Jacob had one request when Cornelia told him about wanting to go to England: he wanted her to work with Kevin McNab if she went over there. “Jacob had bought a few horses from Kevin way back in 2012. When Jacob was still in college, he did a summer with Kevin then went back for another year and a half,” she said. “They’re basically best friends, so it was an easy choice to go work with Kevin.”

When Cornelia was on the cusp of getting married and knew they’d want to start a family shortly after, she realized there was no time like the present to get her English eventing education. “I walked home one day and told Jacob, ‘I think I’m going to go to England now,’” Cornelia said. She arrived in Surrey, England, in January 2022 with three horses: Daytona, DHI Qyaracolle Z and  By-The-Sea.

Cornelia had bought Daytona while she was riding with Sharon. Dirk Schrade found Daytona in Germany and told Sharon, “I think I found Cornelia a horse.” Cornelia flew over, tried Daytona and came home with her.

The first time Kevin saw Cornelia jump Daytona, he saw the same thing Dirk had: Daytona and Cornelia were meant for each other. “Kevin told me, ‘There’s an argument for Burghley here. This is a Burghley horse, and you maybe get a Burghley horse once in a lifetime,’” Cornelia said. “I thought, There is no way Burghley can be my first five-star.”

Kevin didn’t pressure Cornelia to compete at Burghley, rather he set her up for her first five-star without Cornelia realizing it at the time. “He had us compete at events that would prep us for Burghley and trained us with that end goal in mind. Then suddenly it was time to enter. It was so wild to me that this was my five-star debut that I didn’t even tell anyone I had entered,” she said.

Leading up to Burghley, Kevin told Cornelia she was never going to be as prepared to compete at Burghley as she was at that moment. Cornelia made this her mantra: “You’re never going to be as ready as you are right now.” Once again Kevin was spot on in his observation.

Daytona is a quirky horse in the dressage test, but Cornelia was able to move the pair up from their 50^th place dressage score with a fast and clear cross-country course, and subsequent double clear show jumping round to end up finishing in 10^th place. Cornelia finished as the top placed American rider.

During her time with Kevin, Cornelia learned that less is more when it comes to preparing Daytona for the dressage test. “We learned the less time she’s up at the ring, the better her mind is. She has about a 20-minute time limit for the dressage ring, so we have to be finishing our test when her clock runs out,” she said. “I had always admired Kevin as a horseman. My time with him really showed me how his calm and peaceful operation is the environment I learn best in.”

Fresh Perspective

As 2024 began, a pregnant Cornelia studied the competition calendar to plan her postpartum comeback. “There weren’t a lot of events in the fall last year, but I knew from the start I wanted to do TerraNova. I made it my goal to compete there when I stopped riding in January,” she said.

While Cornelia was out of the saddle, she turned over the training duties on Daytona and her other horses to Jacob. “It was really interesting to watch them go from the ground up. It almost gave me fresh eyes about my horses in a way,” she said. “I enjoyed getting a new perspective while watching Jacob train them.”

As Cornelia watched Jacob train her horses, she was able to see the dimension their training program could have when they worked as a team. “Jacob is very good training the horses on the flat and making them better. I’m really good at keeping them happy. It made me realize that he can get on, put a little pressure on the horses, push them to be better and then I can get on and enjoy the training he’s put into them,” she said.  “I was nervous about taking time off and putting my career goals on hold even though I wanted to start a family. But taking the time off to have Sparrow was one of the best things I’ve done.”

Once Cornelia was back in the saddle, she focused on her goal of competing at The Event at TerraNova. “TerraNova gave me the most amount of time to get back into the groove. I didn’t want to feel rusty and was able to compete three times prior to The Event. When I started back, I physically felt fine, I didn’t feel as rusty or weak as my brain wanted me to feel. As soon as I got my brain under control, which was by August or September, I felt good,” she said.

For everything to come together and Cornelia to emerge victorious with Daytona at TerraNova truly capped off an incredible year. “It was more special than I could probably put into words to finish 2024 with that win,” she said. “Jacob definitely played a huge role in keeping my horses competition ready so I could be successful after being out of the saddle for nine months. He not only kept them going, but he also made them better. I’m lucky to have Jacob as a partner in everything I do, and I’m just as grateful for my coach, Mike Huber, who guided me at TerraNova and planned my comeback just four months after Sparrow’s arrival.”

Cornelia’s win last fall helped her become part of the 2025 USEF Eventing Development Program. “It’s a bit of a results-based program, and I was a little sad that being pregnant and having to take time away from riding was going to make it hard for me to make the list for 2025. Winning the four-star kicked me back on to the list and I’m so grateful for the opportunities that come from being part of the program,” she said. “I had four days of training with the team coach, Leslie Law, in January. He’s then available to help you all year. We also have access to lectures from farriers, vets and nutritionists, and even lectures on how to handle media requests.”

Living the life she’s always dreamed about, Cornelia is looking forward to competing Daytona while also developing some young prospects. “I need to rebuild my horsepower, so I’m in the process of finding some new good young horses. I’m hoping one of the horses I have right now might be ready for the L.A. Olympics; obviously I have some work to do with him between now and then. That’s one of the hardest parts about our sport, finding horses at the right age, producing them well and having them peak at the right time,” she said.

In the meantime, Cornelia and Jacob will continue supporting each other at their Fletcher Farms so they can each compete while raising Sparrow. “For the away shows, we bought a camper so it’s easier to have Sparrow with us at the shows. Jacob is the dad extraordinaire watching her while I’m competing, and then we swap roles when he competes,” Cornelia said.

Looking to eventually have a second child when the time is right based on their competition schedules, Cornelia remains focused on the two things that are most important to her—family and horses. “I hope to be able to stay at the top of the sport for as long as I can, while having a happy and healthy family,” she said.

Follow Cornelia on Instagram @corneliadorrfletcher

Photos by Kacy Brown, kacybrownphotography.com