It was just a week before Christmas when two starving horses were discovered in the rugged mountains of the B.C. Interior – hip bones protruding, backs blanketed in ice, weakened bodies teetering between life and death.

Logan Jeck, 21, came upon the pair while retrieving two tourists' snowmobiles in the snow-covered terrain. He went home and told his father, David. David Jeck, a horse owner, sent his daughter back the next day with two things: a .44 Magnum rifle and a bale of hay. “If they look like they're in distress, put them down,” Mr. Jeck instructed his daughter, Toni. “If they look like they're able to survive, feed them.”

The horses got the hay.

And the village of McBride got down to a made-in-Canada tale of animal rescue. Fighting snow, freezing cold and winter's early darkness, dozens of volunteers from around McBride pulled together to save the enfeebled, snow-trapped horses. They spent a week digging a kilometre-long passageway through towering snowdrifts and spirited out the three-year-old mare and older gelding. And on Tuesday night, two days before Christmas, the horses and their rescuers trekked seven hours down a Canadian mountain to safety.

The residents of McBride, a village hit hard by mill closings and job losses, gave time and sweat – and in several cases, suffered frostbite in the process – to save two animals abandoned in the snow. The horses, Sundance and Belle, were placed in foster care by the SPCA and are expected to recover.

“This was probably one of the most heartwarming displays of compassion we've ever seen,” Jamie Wiltse, a special constable for the B.C. SPCA, said yesterday from Kamloops. “The people of the town of McBride are heroes. They saved the horses. They've been struggling lately, but they weren't thinking of themselves when they were digging out those horses. “It just makes me choke up. It's a beautiful story, right before Christmas. It was totally selfless.”

It began when Logan Jeck happened upon the animals, clinging to a mountainside in a tiny snowed-in space on Mount Renshaw in northeastern B.C., near the Alberta border. They are believed to have been left there since September by their owner, an Albertan. At first, Mr. Jeck thought they were moose. Then he saw white markings on the forehead of one of the horses. “They were sick, disgusting-looking, starving horses,” he recalled yesterday.

The SPCA went in with a veterinarian a few days later to assess the animals' health. On a scale in which zero is death and the ideal measure is five or six, the animals' health was evaluated at two. Not only had they lost a third to half their body weight, but the gelding was covered in sores and was missing patches of hair. Urine had encrusted what remained of their tails.

Word of the trapped animals spread through the Robson Valley, and soon volunteers began to organize, hauling in blankets and hay, and melting snow over open fires to provide water. Donations began to pour in for the volunteers to cover fuel and other costs, some from as far as Vancouver and Edmonton. People such as horse trainer Birgit Stutz, travelled morning and night to reach the animals, venturing out even when the temperature dived to -40. “They didn't deserve to be left up there with no chance of getting out,” Ms. Stutz said. “I wanted them out and that's all I thought about, and that's all that kept me going.”

Rescuers considered several alternatives to free the horses from their snowy prison: Harnessing them up to a helicopter, pulling them out on sleds, even putting them on horse “snowshoes” so they could walk out.

In the end, they realized the only viable option was to dig a corridor through the snow. So they got down to what Canadians do at this time of year: Shovelling. It took nearly a week.

Constable Wiltse said the SPCA is investigating to determine if charges may be brought against the owner of the horses under provincial animal-cruelty laws. An Edmonton lawyer who told CTV News that he was the owner said the horses were delivering supplies to hikers on the mountain in September when he got separated from them. He said he returned three times to get the animals, twice getting stuck in the snow and finally, when he located them, unable to get them out of the snow. But the SPCA says there is a duty to at least alert authorities. “Even to humanely euthanize them would have been better than to let them starve or freeze to death,” Constable Wiltse said.

Residents of the Robson Valley, meanwhile, who sacrificed their own Christmas preparations to rescue the animals, say they are relieved they freed the horses in time. Ms. Stutz has been so busy she didn't have time to put up a Christmas tree or buy presents this year. “But this still seems like the best Christmas ever,” she said from her home in Dunster, B.C. “You realize these are the most important things in life – to help something that needs help.”

...It will be their 13th consecutive week of play since their bye week, and they might be able to rest some weary and injured regular players for as many as three weeks.

One of them is cornerback Aaron Ross, who spent Sunday night in a local hospital and was discharged Monday afternoon after sustaining a concussion. “He still has some blurriness,” Coughlin said. “He got dinged pretty good. They’re going to do all the psychological tests that a player has to pass before he can be cleared to practice.”

Among the hobbled Giants regulars are Jacobs (knee), wide receiver Domenik Hixon (ankle), right tackle Kareem McKenzie (back), defensive end Justin Tuck (leg), nose tackle Barry Cofield (knee) and defensive tackle Fred Robbins (shoulder).

In addition, the veteran middle linebacker Antonio Pierce has looked a step slow in the last few weeks in pass and run coverage....

...Their pass rush, a strength in the first half of the season, had another ineffective night. They did not sack Jake Delhomme and rarely pressured him.

“I think you are concerned whenever the quarterback is able to stand back there and throw the ball without having to be disrupted,” Coughlin said. “We would like to have all areas of our defense being productive. We did not have that.

Bill Parcells is protective of the NFL turnover record his 1990 New York Giants set en route to winning the Super Bowl.

Parcells was the head coach when the Giants had only 14 turnovers, the lowest regular-season total in league history. Now he's executive vice president with the Miami Dolphins, who have 12 turnovers with one game left. When offensive coordinator Dan Henning learned a couple of weeks ago that the Dolphins were on pace to break the record, he couldn't resist teasing Parcells.

"Being the prankster that I am, I went up to this gentleman and said, `Did you see this stat that we're in line to have the least turnovers in history?"' Henning said Wednesday. "`Yeah, I know,' he said. `But it's still not going to count, because we did it with 19 games and went to the Super Bowl.'

"You think he's not competitive? That record is important to him."

For the record: The Giants had one turnover in the postseason, giving them 15 total...

... The question now is: Considering everything that's at stake, how will the New York Giants approach their game with Minnesota?

Answer: However Tom Coughlin chooses.

That is his right. He won the NFC East. He has a first-round bye. He has home-field advantage. So he can do what he wants to do. He can play his starters. He can rest his starters. He can play his starters one quarter, or he can play them one half. He can play them four quarters if he likes.

And whatever he does he is right.

I can already hear the caterwauling from Winnetka to Barrington, with outraged Chicago Bears' fans insisting that Coughlin has an obligation to play for keeps, to try to win a game that means so much to the Vikings and Bears.

After all, a playoff spot is at stake. If the Vikings win, they're in. If the Vikings lose, and Chicago wins, the Bears are in. It's as simple as that. So the Giants must, absolutely must, do whatever they can to win a game that is important to two teams -- if not for the Vikings and Bears, then for the integrity of the game.

Wrong.

The Giants must do what is in the best interest of the New York Giants, not the Minnesota Vikings and/or Chicago Bears. They have a raft of injured players, starting with cornerback Aaron Ross and running back Brandon Jacobs, and if Coughlin thinks by resting them he enhances his chances of going deep into the playoffs then he should.

Remember, this is a team that will play for the 13th straight week since a Sept. 28 bye, so Coughlin not only has injured players, he has tired ones, too.

He also has a quarterback who started every game, and it might be wise to have Eli Manning sit down for part or all of a game that means nothing to New York. I know the Vikings' chances for success improve with Manning's benching, but so what? Critics can bray, but imagine the outcry if Manning were hurt and sidelined for the playoffs.

I covered a San Francisco 49ers team in 1994 that won 10 straight entering its last game with playoff-bound Minnesota. The 49ers had clinched home-field advantage, so the only question entering the game was Steve Young setting a single-season record for passer rating. The 49ers had him play a quarter, then sat him down ... along with other starters.

They lost. Young set the record. And a month later the 49ers won Super Bowl XXIX.

If I were a Bears' fan I'd want Tom Coughlin to do what he could to beat the Vikings, too. But that's not Coughlin's job now. His job is to take care of the New York Giants and drive them as far and as long as he can. If he decides it's in the best interests of the club to play Manning four quarters he will. He did a year ago in the season ender with the Patriots, and it launched the Giants on a memorable Super Bowl run.

But the circumstances were different then. Coughlin was looking for a spark, something to wake up a club that lost as many as it won the second half of the season. And he found it, with the Giants taking the unbeaten Patriots to the mat before succumbing.

The point was made: If we meet these guys again, we can beat them. And they did.

Coughlin needs no such spark now. He found it against Carolina. Sure, the Giants lost two of their last three, but they won the game that mattered most -- and they did it with Jacobs back in the lineup.

That should tell Coughlin something. Without Jacobs, they ran for a season-low 72 yards against Dallas and were drilled. Then Jacobs returned to the lineup and scored three times, with teammate Derrick Ward running for a career-high 215 yards, the club shredding Carolina for a season-high 301 yards and the Giants winning.

Coughlin knows he must have a healthy Jacobs to reach the Super Bowl again. He knows he must allow Aaron Ross to recover from a concussion. And he knows he can't afford to have Manning sidelined by an injury that didn't have to happen.

In short, he knows that what he must do next is what he thinks is best for the Giants.

You would, too, if you were in his position. At the league meetings in March the NFL considered the idea of re-seeding teams to prevent clubs from tanking meaningless games late in the season. The idea was voted down, and I'll tell you why: Because coaches understand it's the playoffs, not the regular season; that counts more.

A year ago, Coughlin decided it was in the best interests of the Giants to play his starters through the 17th week. This year he might change his mind. Then again, he might not. It doesn't matter. All that matters is how his decision affects the New York Giants, not the NFC North.

And that is how it should be.