Four years ago, in 2010, history was made when the FŽdŽration Equestre Internationale World Equestrian Games (WEG) were held for the first time outside of Europe. The venue? The Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington. And I was fortunate enough to secure a job covering the event from start to finish. Spending those 16 days in Lexington watching some of the best horses and riders from around the world compete at the highest levels of the sport and experiencing everything that went along with it was really a dream come true.

The 2010 games were also a dream come true for another group of riders: the para-equestrians. You see, 2010 marked the first time the para-dressage event was part of a WEG event. At that event, 60 horse and rider combinations from 16 countries competed for the honors. This year, 100 horse and rider combinations from 33 countries will descend upon Normandy to ride for the gold.

As I perused the entries for this year’s para-dressage competition, my eyes settled on a Dutch Warmblood mare named Nice Touch, who’ll compete for the United States with her owner and rider Roxie Trunnell in this year’s WEG. At 19, “TouchŽ” is the oldest horse on the U.S. para-dressage team (and, if my research is correct, the oldest horse on Team USA) and, in doing a little digging to find out more, I learned that she and her rider have an incredibly inspiring story that started long before Roxie lost her ability to walk after an illness.