By Scott Brinton
Katie, of Bellmore, smiled widely as she pointed out the many prizes she has won at equestrian competitions. Her mother, Kim, beamed as Katie spoke. Only moments earlier, Kim had carried Katie up the stairs leading to her daughter's sunny, second-story bedroom. Katie can not walk up by herself.
With such an array of medals to her credit -- representing six years of accomplishment -- it's hard to imagine that Katie was so small at birth -- 1 pound, 4 ounces -- that she could fit in the palm of an adult hand. Or that she was born without ears, and with her eyes partly fused together. Or that she was missing her corpus callosum, the fibrous band of tissue that bridges the right and left hemispheres of the brain and helps direct movement of the arms and legs.
Fourteen weeks premature, Katie was oxygen-starved at birth because her lungs were not fully formed, and she developed cerebral palsy, which severely limits her balance, movement and posture. Kim, a dialysis nurse, had heard that horseback-riding helped children suffering from the condition to expand their range of motion, while also developing stamina and self-confidence. So when her daughter turned 3, she signed her up for HorseAbility, a nonprofit program for people with special needs of all ages that teaches the fundamentals of equestrianism.
Katie rides at HorseAbility's Melville stables. Soon after learning to ride, she began competing in the Long Island Horse Show Series for Riders with Disabilities, an annual circuit of competitions sponsored by HorseAbility. Since 2006, top finishers in the series have qualified for the famed Hampton Classic, one of the world's top equestrian competitions, held each year in August in Bridgehampton. For the first time this year, Katie earned a place at the Classic, realizing a longtime dream. Among disabled riders, McCormick finished fourth in the walk equitation competition, equitation being the ability to maintain the correct posture on a horse while riding.
It was a remarkable feat of single-minded determination, particularly considering that only weeks before the Classic, Katie had undergone debilitating hip surgery, one of several operations she has endured over the years. "She's very competitive," Kim said of her daughter.
Katie said the best part about competing is "getting the ribbons. The Hampton Classic was important to me because I trained so hard all year, and it paid off. I made it to the Classic. I never thought I could ride a horse, and I rode a horse in the Classic."
Katie spent the first two and a half months of her life breathing through a ventilator inside a hospital incubator, developing as she would have in her mother's womb. Since then, life has been hard on this soft-spoken girl with an indomitable spirit who loves Disney's "High School Musical" and "Hannah Montana." There were the long, painful nights when Katie struggled to breathe because she battled repeated bouts of pneumonia. "She was very, very sick for the first few years of her life," Kim said. Katie's doctors wondered at times whether she would survive.
At 3, she still could not walk. "They told me she would never be able to walk," Kim said.
Katie proved her doctors wrong. Within six months of starting to ride, she had learned to walk. Now, however, her muscles often seize up in terrible spasms when she moves her legs, rendering her unable to stand up straight and making staircases difficult to handle. "Her muscles are always in a state of contraction," her mother said.
When Katie rides, though, she forgets that she is disabled. Her father, John McCormick, a Web editor, said, "I just love seeing her on a horse. You put her up on a horse and you can see the athlete in her. You put her on the horse and she can be as good or better than anyone else when it comes to athletics."
Kathleen McGowan founded HorseAbility in 1993. The organization serves children and adults with a range of disabilities, from cerebral palsy to blindness to autism. At HorseAbility, Katie has ridden a number of horses -- Sassy, Bear, Henry, Buddy, Boone. Her favorite, Sassy, a black mare with a big tail, was retired to an upstate farm recently, which made Katie sad.
She works hard to control the horses as she trots them in precise figure 8s. "Sometimes I go so fast, I fall off," she said. Katie rarely falls all the way to the ground, however. Handlers walk alongside her as she maneuvers the horses around the ring to ensure her safety.
She trains every week, no matter the weather -- in the searing heat of summer, in the bitter cold of winter. Her parents are always with her, watching. The hardest challenge, Kim said, is paying for the training. One summer of half-hour lessons is $750. A single competition, including horse rental, transportation of the animal to the contest, stable fees and tips can run more than $350. But the McCormicks insist that the benefits to Katie outweigh the costs.
A student at Winthrop Avenue Elementary School in Bellmore, she is doing well these days. She loves to draw and to read, especially the "Tiara Club" series by Vivian French. She takes karate lessons. And she loves to play with her 6-year-old brother, Danny, whom the McCormicks adopted from Korea.
John McCormick said, "I'm just real proud of Katie. Here's a little girl who really pushes herself and likes to compete. What horses and the Hampton Classic have given her is an outlet for her competitive spirit."
To reach HorseAbility, call (631) 367-1646.
Comments about this story? SBrinton@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 203.
