Jacqueline Brooks' First Grand Prix Horse Finnegan Passed Away

Dressage

Canada

Canadian Olympian Jaqueline Brooks said goodbye to her first Grand Prix horse, Finnegan. He would turn 33 in spring.

Finnegan was a 1988 born Oldenburg gelding by Almeo out of Annelie (by Admiral I - Magister/T). He was bred by Josef Greten in Molberg, Germany.

Gift for Diploma

Finnegan came into Brooks' life as a gift for achieving her diploma at the University of Western Ontario in 1990. Her parents, Eric and Mary Brooks, bought Finnegan as a rising 3-year old in Germany in 1991.

"I was a working student with Ashley Holzer and saw Finnegan on a video at a dinner party at Tim Dutta’s when I was 23," Brooks told Eurodressage.

Brooks travelled to Europe to try out horses and was housed at Guido Klatte while she searched for her future star.

"Tim arranged for me to fly with horses to Guido Klatte’s stable in Germany to try him," said Jacqueline. "This was the beginning of an amazing friendship with both Tim and the Klatte’s. Guido and Britta took me into their home where I well overstayed my welcome and spent over 3 weeks trying young horses and returning everyday to Finnegan eventually buying him and flying with him on the trip home to Canada."

From Young Riders to Grand Prix

First FEI level Competition experiences with Finnegan

Jacqueline trained the chestnut from novice level to Grand Prix and achieved her first career defining successes with him, before her Canadian Olympic team horses Gran Gesto (2008) and D Niro (2012) came along.

With Finnegan, Jacquie rode her first intercontinental championships, the North American Championship in Washington, their first ribbon presentations at Dressage at Devon, and the 2002 and 2003 Canadian World Cup League finals at the Royal Winter Fair.

Famous For Entertaining, Not Winning

Her fondest memory of a competition was 2003 Dressage at Devon.

"The highlight in my mind was the night I made the ribbon presentations for the first time at Dressage at Devon. It was when only 12 horses would move forward to the freestyle and we had squeaked in after a 12th place finish in the Grand Prix. I was then, of course, first to ride on the Saturday night. As we ran through our Abba themed program, Finny got more and more into the music and the crowd! As I finished I was happy enough with just that feeling we all chase of doing our best, but as the evening wore on, we started to stay ahead of the horses that followed and, at the break, we were still in the lead. I made my way to the beer tent and returned with as many pitchers as I could carry for all my newly formed best friends sitting in my section in the stands. While we didn’t wish ill luck on anyone in the top six, we all hoped against hope we could squeak by one more and make it to the presentation ceremony in the Dixon Oval. And, as luck would have it, he managed to just get past the next to compete and I may have well as won the Olympic gold medal as far as all my new friends were concerned !! It was the night that got me inspired to make this my career. "

Retirement

Finnegan was retired from sport in the mid 2000s, but continued to be ridden as a schoolmaster at home until he was 25, "for riders needing to “feel” what is like to do piaffe or passage."

He passed away on 1 February 2021.

"You were part of my life longer than you weren’t," Brooks wrote. "You were a promised gift in exchange for a diploma, my reason to be a university graduate. You were supported by my amazing parents and my grandfather with the whisper “don’t tell your grandmother “. You generously taught me how to train a horse by being their friend from Basic One to Grand Prix."

Brooks concluded, "he taught so many their first correct change, their first set of one tempi changes, their first feel of piaffe. He ran the barn at Brookhaven and is already so missed. He was a horse of a lifetime and I will love you forever."