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passing through Lonesome Dove again
on their way to Mexico. He stands in their
way and the men are killed in a gunfight.
But legend has it that there were gun shots
coming from a side alley. No one doubts
that they were fired by the woman, who
protected herself from losing another
family member.
exactly the opposite. When we reach her
by telephone in Florida, she radiates a
relentlessly positive, uncomplicated and
zen-like approach to her sport and to her
life.
There are no guns and we’re not on the
plains of Texas, but like the woman
in the song lyrics, Foster is a bit of a
pioneer who has persevered in a maledominated environment. She has shown
herself to be a fighter, overcoming major
adversity, including a broken back in 2008
and what most people saw as an unfair
disqualification of her horse, Victor, during
her first appearance at the Olympics in
London 2012.
Yes. He’s a great horse. Artisan Farms
purchased him two years ago in 2014.
He’s got a lot of personality and he’s a
real fighter in the ring. He’s just a great,
great horse. He has the right personality
to compete and he always seems to know
if it’s a big class or a big day. Horses either
rise up or not and he’s definitely one that
rises up for high-pressure scenarios.
Foster is returning to the Olympics four
years later, riding Tripple X III, who carried
Ben Maher and Britain to team jumping
gold at the London 2012 Games. She is
excited to be riding an Olympic champion,
affectionately nicknamed Hugo, and she is
hungry for a better Olympic outcome this
time around in 2016. The team recently
won gold and glory at the Toronto 2015
Pan American Games.
Away from the ring, Foster is almost
finished reading a book that her mother
gave to her when she was just twelve
years old. She is engrossed in Denison’s
Ice Road about her maternal grandfather’s
engineering feats around the sub-Arctic
world of the 1950s through 70s. Her
grandfather Denison perfected the art of
constructing ice roads through the most
isolated parts of the Northwest Territories
fifty to sixty years ago. He was eventually
awarded the Order of Canada for his
pioneer work.
Given her trailblazing lineage, it wouldn’t
be surprising if the addition of adversity
and athletic competition had created a
tough-as-nails personality, but Foster is
The horse you ride - Tripple X III is his nickname Hugo?
What’s your personality like when
you’re competing? Are you zen or
intense?
I would say I’d be more on the zen side
of things. I’m pretty relaxed and I don’t
get very nervous. We always want to do a
good job and do our best but I’m definitely
more on the zen side. I guess you’re born
a certain way, so I don’t really need to
wrangle much.
You’ve had some adversity, and in
2008 you had a really bad injury.
I was training a young horse at home in
2008. I fell off and broke my back. I had
a pretty bad fracture on my T6 vertebra. I
had to have surgery and a lot of hardware:
titanium rods and screws in place and all
sorts of crazy things in my back. It was
quite a long recovery, so I had to start
all over again in 2009. I think whenever
you’re faced with any kind of adversity you
either get down or rise above it. Obviously
it wasn’t a great thing but it was just
something I had to deal with. I never really
let myself get sad about it. Eventually I
knew I would look back and it would be a
bad thing that happened, and that’s all it
is now.
In London 2012, tell me about your
experience at your first Olympics.
It seemed the cut on your horse
Victor’s leg didn’t seem that bad.
Did it seem like an overreaction to
you when you were barred from
riding?
Obviously for someone at the Olympics for
the first time you’re pretty devastated just
because there’s something pretty special
about the Olympics. So not to even get
the chance to perform, it’s hard to get
your head around why. But looking back
at it now, the rules are there to protect the
welfare of the horse and to stop people
from cheating. I was not cheating but the
way the rule is written, the officials had
to react. It’s a black-and-white rule, but
the whole thing was a grey area because
obviously my horse was totally fit to
compete and totally fine. Looking back if
maybe I had to be punished unjustly, and
that helps someone later down the road
to not be treated poorly, then my being
punished could become the silver lining.
Fast forward to the 2016 Rio
Olympics. Are you worried about
the water and Zika virus? What are
you going to do about that?
I know. It makes me a little nervous. What
next? E. coli and Salmonella? (laughing)
I don’t know what I’ll do. I’m hoping
someone else will sort all that out!
You’re in a male-dominated
sport. Do you feel like a Martian
sometimes or is it just par for the
course?
It’s an old guys team! (laughing) I’m a
pretty strong girl so I don’t get too fazed by
the razzing, but overall they treat you pretty
equally. You feel just as much pressure as
if you were a guy. Maybe I get a little bit
of favouritism sometimes. They might be a
little bit nicer to me than normal. I’ll take
that.