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
listens for the thud of a falling rail It wobbles but stays up When he turns his attention back to the course he's forgotten where the next jump is He slows Tailor down and looks wildly around If he misses the fence or jumps the wrong one they'll be eliminated People in the crowd are shouting trying to guide him Then O Connor remembers the wall He aims Tailor at the solid brick fence and they're back on track At the ninth fence Tailor knocks down a rail His strides get uneven for a moment but O Connor steadies him They head into a tough triple combination and Tailor clears each jump They gallop between the finish flags less than a second before the clock runs out Despite their near disaster on the course they have won the gold in eventing with just 34 penalty points the lowest score in Olympic history WHAT IS EVENTING Back when horses were used in war cavalry units needed fit well trained mounts that were brave enough to tackle any obstacle Eventing began as a way for officers to O Connor and Tailor lead a victory lap celebrating their Olympic gold medal in eventing
