1 THE EQUINE TRIATHLON It's a sunny September afternoon at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney Australia A large sand arena is set up with a course of colorful jumps United States team member David O Connor rides through the arena gate on an elegant dark bay gelding named Custom Made A gelding is a male horse surgically made unable to reproduce The 17 2 hand Irish sport horse is called Tailor for short Tailor is a triathlete of the horse world He competes in dressage cross country and show jumping He has
David O Connor and Tailor head for a jump in the 2000 Olympic Games
been trained for many years to reach this level His diet and exercise are as carefully planned as any human Olympian's Today is the final day of individual eventing It has been 16 years since the United States has taken home an Olympic gold in eventing O Connor and Tailor have already ridden a nearly perfect dressage test and have had a clean round in cross country Now Tailor's ears prick forward as he looks over the jumps O Connor is nervous Show jumping is Tailor's weakness Sometimes the horse does not lift his hooves carefully and knocks rails down Each time that happens five penalty points are added to the pair's score In eventing the lowest score wins If O Connor and Tailor drop rails at more than two of the 15 jumps the gold medal may slip from their grasp O Connor urges Tailor into a canter and they head toward the first fence Tailor clears it easily But the gelding is tired Yesterday he jumped more than 30 cross country fences galloping for 13 minutes straight
O Connor and Tailor leap over a jump Today he's surrounded by distracting sights sounds and smells But Tailor trusts David and stays focused They jump the next five fences cleanly Then the gelding's hooves hit the top of a green gate O Connor
