In virtually every competition at the BC Summer Games, the focus is on the young athletes across the province going for gold.
But in equestrian, part of the attention goes towards the horse. Especially if it’s Finale.
Three years ago, Finale was stolen and taken to the California-Mexico border, where she was found standing by herself in a small pen.
“She was in tough shape,” said Central Saanich’s Petra Pinkerton, Finale’s rider.
“She had a very large cut across her face that obviously did need stitches…she had a lot of scarring over there. In the past year, we’ve been able to get it all healed up.”
The harder part was healing the mental trauma the horse suffered.
“We started all over. We put her out in my mom’s best friend’s field with another herd of horses where she could learn to be a horse again without the anxiety,” she said.
Over the last year, Finale started competing again – and today at the BC Summer Games, she and Pinkerton third.
“You would not really say for her build that she could jump big jumps, and she does. Way above her own height. I’ll be coming into a height, and be thinking, ‘this is taller than us, let’s go!’ And she’ll go ‘okay.'”
The BC Summer Games conclude tomorrow.