An ex-police horse, that was rehomed by World Horse Welfare, finished 11th in the vaulting competition at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games (WEG) earlier this month.
World Horse Welfare Islay (pictured above at WEG and below) was lunged in Normandy by his loaner of 12 years — Liz MacKay.
“I have been vaulting for 21 years and when I heard about Islay I thought he’d make the perfect horse for me to train with,” said Liz.
Canada had qualified for WEG this year but had no horse, so Liz agreed to lend them Islay.
The horse has been to several championships in the British team since 2006.
“They came to train on him for 10 days in June prior to competing in the CHIO in Aachen and decided he was the horse they wanted to take to WEG,” said Liz.
The Canadians spent three weeks training with Liz and Islay in Scotland before going out to Normandy.
The atmosphere at WEG was “quite electric” but at 19 year-old Islay kept a steady head even on 
the big stage, said Liz.
“Islay and I had to work on trust and past experience of knowing each other. His Canadian vaulters had also built up a special relationship of trust with him and he had confidence in his whole team,” she added.
Liz is now hoping to qualify Islay in the junior world championships in Holland next year.
WEG vaulting: rescue horse takes to the international stage
We spoke to the lunger of a 19-year-old rehomed police horse, Liz MacKay who has been competing in the vaulting
