She is more recognised for her MarketPlace commercials promoting healthy eating, but now Virginia McKey wants to make a name for herself representing Bermuda as a top equestrian.

Since 2007 when McKey and her husband Stephen relocated to Canada, she has made tremendous sacrifices to achieve her goal of competing in dressage events at the Central American and Caribbean Games in November in Veracruz, Mexico, and next summer’s Pan American Games in Toronto, Ontario.

Last weekend McKey won the Adult Amateur Ontario Championship on her horse Wolkenglanz, affectionately known as Wolly, and has now qualified for the CAC Games.

Her challenges continue, however, as now McKey desperately needs funding to get to Mexico and then on to the Pan Am Games.

She estimates she will need about $44,000 in travel, training and competing expenses to attend events in New York this month, Florida next month to compete with the Bermuda jumping team and then training for the Pan Am Games.

Despite numerous challenges that include breaking her back in a fall in 2010, McKey has never lost sight of her ultimate goal of competing in a major competition for her country.

“My husband and I moved to Canada seven years ago to pursue my goals of representing Bermuda in the sport of equestrian dressage,” said McKey, who lives in Ontario.

“We have both worked very hard and managed to get me to the international dressage level on our own finances.

“I have trained regularly with two extremely talented and knowledgeable Canadian Olympians, Diane Creech and Cindy Ishoy, for the past six years. With their expertise, me and my horse have been able to train to the Federation Equestrian International (FEI) intermediate level.

“This is the level needed to compete at the CAC Games to be held from November 15 to 30 and it is the level I have been successfully competing at for the last year.”

She added: “I found my partner, Wolly, a six-year-old Hanoverian just imported to Canada from Germany, through my coach Diane in 2009.

“Wolly and I have trained hard together from the lower levels of dressage to the international level over the past five years. Unfortunately I broke my back in a riding accident in November 2010. This happened a month before I had a chance of a lifetime of going to Florida with Wolly to train with internationally renowned rider and trainer, Lars Peterson.

“I took a chance and followed Wolly to Florida in late January after a two-month recuperation and trained and competed until May 2011. This was a huge learning experience for both Wolly and myself.”

However, McKey had not fully recovered from the back injury and faced a further setback in 2012.

“My back injury humbugged me constantly until I saw a back specialist in early 2012, who told me I needed to have surgery to avoid risk of paralyzation,” McKey said.

“Of course I took his recommendations. Stephen and I sold our boarding and training farm and downsized to a much smaller property and I had surgery in August 2012.

“Since then I have been making up for lost time and this past summer Wolly and I improved our dressage scores to the point of being able to qualify for the Central American and Caribbean Games.

“Since we downsized I have been working full-time as a personal strength trainer and health coach. Stephen moved back to Bermuda to work full time in the marine industry to better help me financially.”

Initially McKey had to make many adjustments with her new horse, but now the partnership is working beautifully.

“He was quite a handful and has been very difficult to get relaxed and comfortable, putting me in hospital three times, once with the broken back,” McKey said.

“We had been in training and showing unsuccessfully but never giving up for the past four years and this summer I finally figured out he had a very nervous stomach and worked on fixing that and since then we have won the Championship at the last five shows we entered.

“When I first moved to Canada it was with the hope that I would be able to train to the Pan Am dressage level and be able to afford to compete in the Games. Last winter the FEI decided to make the CAC Games a qualifier for the Pan American Games.

“This was not part of the criteria in the past, so was a surprise that made me realise that there was no way I would be able to qualify for the Pan Am Games without financial support.”

n Anyone willing to assist Mckey financially with her goals, or for further information, contact her at vhmckey@yahoo.com