A Shout Out to our Young Rider Clinic Team

September 1, 2026

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The AERC board recently received a submission from Holly Corcoran. She was sharing ways she thought AERC could improve membership. She shared her experience in Australia where she witnessed how they include the younger generations and then her second half was a HUGE shout out to ODEEO and Teri Carroll for how she empowered the Young Riders in planning and implementing the clinic. I think Holly nailed it on the head…..

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Below is the copied section about the OD clinic: (with Holly’s permission)

    “The ODEEO Junior Young Rider Clinic hosted in Mt. Airy, MD at the Carroll County Equestrian facility also offered many insights. These junior young riders were hard-working and willing to chip in with the horses or with anything that needed to be done.  Teri Carroll was the organizer, but the framework, content and schedule was created by a core group of young riders. There were tons of activities outside of riding, including visualization exercises, goal setting, yoga, body work – both horse and people, presentations on important horse topics, reviewing/understanding the vet card and a live endurance hold drill with numerous crew teams supporting their rider, caring for the horse, doing the vet check and post-event brainstorming on what was good and what could have been improved.  There were nightly “shout-outs” highlighting what participants excelled at or how well they handled a challenge encountered during the day.

    I was pleased to provide two horses to be ridden by young riders.  It was so much fun sharing my horses and seeing both improve over the week.  The young riders rode two lessons daily in two different arenas or trail rode, being in the saddle for about 3 hours per day. One day was devoted to attending a local obstacle course where the JRYRs and adults paired up with a horse to lead them over the obstacles and then ride the obstacles which included swinging and sliding bridges, water obstacles, gates, a teeter-totter, and narrow raised walkways (not far off the ground) to allow the horse to be aware of where his feet were to stay on top.

Our sport needs more young people and we are competing with other sports and activities.  This clinic offered endurance kids and those that have never participated in the sport to hone skills useful in our or any discipline. I loved sharing my horses, my knowledge as needed, and interacting with these great kids.  We should support these types of clinics throughout our regions to attract youth and build skills.

    I love endurance because there is so much to learn, it never stops.  I would love our kids to embrace a sport of life-long enjoyment and learning.

    AERC is spiraling downward with membership and ride entries declining.  We are losing rides and trails.  How are we going to re-create ourselves to embrace the world in which we live and continue this awesome sport?  I think these two events highlighted ways to make a difference”

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Thank you Holly for your kind words. Continue reading below to get more information on how this year's Young Rider Clinic was run.