HorsesDaily Who's Who

Father Larry David McCormick - "Father Mack": Journalist, Academician (Fordham University) Parish Priest, Equestrian Fanatic, Devoted Horse Husband

We are honored to have Father Mack's whimsical, sometimes intelectual coverage coming live from Aachen as he and his adorable wife Ruth (with camera in hand) join the masses of spectators congregating for the 2006 FEI World Equestrian Games - Aachen. His articles have graced our pages for several years, and it is always fun to get to see them first.

Father Mack (a.k.a.: Larry David McCormick) A gentleman who wears several different hats.

He is a parish priest, an academician, a journalist, an dedicated drinker of Belgian beer, a devoted husband, and an equestrian fanatic. Let’s look at those in reverse order:

Father Mack and Equestrian Sport - On the Scene at the 2006 FEI World Equestrian Games - Aachen

What this hard-to-quantify fellow brings to our coverage of the 2006 iteration of the World Equestrian Games may best be summed up under the heading of “eclectic.” We could use other words to describe his brand of horse journalism: unique, obscure, or madcap, for example. But we’ll stick with eclectic.

Consider this example. For his first contribution to the Aachen coverage Father Mack wanted to give a “heads up” to those lucky souls who will be attending the WEG that there are Belgian beers aplenty to be had in and around Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle for the Francophiles). While this may seem to be of limited value when it comes to one’s appreciation of the horse sport, it could significantly level the moods of fans whose favorite horses and riders are not performing (well, perhaps it is safer to say, “not being given the marks by the judges”) up to the fans’ level of expectation. Several bottles of robust Belgian brews may send such fans back into the stands for the afternoon’s competition with a more chipper outlook on the team’s prospects.

Okay, okay. So you’re not a beer drinker. What, then, might this hirsute clergyperson have to offer? Hmmm. How about this. Mack loves few things more than the challenge of wheedling from dressage riders or their coaches information on what music has been selected for the kur. At the last World Cup held in Las Vegas, he was able to extract (no truth serum nor a rack were used, so he tells us) from Debbie McDonald’s musical mentor (Terry Ciotti Gallo of KlassicKur) the fact that Debbie and Brentina would be finishing down the centerline to the bold lyrics of Aretha Franklin’s “R*E*S*P*E*C*T,” and that fans were invited to join in the raucous conclusion as they saw fit. Keep your eyes fixed on Dressage Daily to see what tidbits our scrounging priest may uncover.

Oh, of course, there is also the de rigueur reporting on each horse and rider’s performance in all phases of the competition, how the nations of the world shape up by comparison one to another, and that sort of thing. No doubt Mack will throw in his two cents’ worth on such topics along with our wealth of other observers at the games.