Equestrian: Tait rethinks retirement

By EUGENE BINGHAM

If it were a movie, it would have been called Horror at Horsley Park.

By mid-afternoon on Thursday, defending Olympic and world eventing champion Blyth Tait had been reduced to a sad figure, contemplating how he could shake a month-long curse, while seven other riders had bitten the dust of Sydney's equestrian cross-country course.

By Thursday night, the bruising battle for the individual three-day eventing title had seen one horse put down, three other horses in equine clinics and two riders in hospital.

For Tait, the scars were emotional.

Welton Envoy, his 13-year-old back-up horse, had let him down at the first water jump, racking up 20 penalty points that sunk any chance of a second Olympic gold.

Coming so soon after Tuesday's disappointment when his mount in the team's event, Ready Teddy, failed a vet inspection, the 39-year-old could only wonder if his whole Olympic campaign had been jinxed; that some sort of spell had fallen on him last month when his beloved horse Chesterfield had a heart attack on the eve of his departure to Sydney.

"Since Chesterfield died, it has been a downhill spiral," he said.

"Everything has been going against me, so I thought, 'Today might be my day.' But no.

"Anything that could've gone wrong in my preparation did and anything that could've gone wrong here [in Sydney] has, too.

"Something went wrong somewhere but it was beyond our control, I believe."

Like a true champion, however, Tait has decided he will not be beaten by the string of blows. Instead, it has inspired him to think of postponing his retirement.

He had intended that these Olympics would be his last.

"Maybe now I will regroup, get some young horses and look to Greece in four years' time."

Tait's hopes of fighting from seventh place up into medal contention crumbled on the way out of Pemulwuy's Waterhole where Welton Envoy ran off line and refused to jump the fence up the bank.

"It's the first mistake he and I have made as a combination - not a good place to do it - but my chances were gone and I decided to walk him home."

Other riders weren't able to make such a choice.

Bermuda's Mary Jane Tumbridge was devastated when her horse, Bermuda's Gold, received multiple fractures to its left front leg. Vets last night battled unsuccessfully to save the horse, and three other horses were receiving treatment at Horsley Park.

Of the riders, Denmark's Nils Haagensen received a badly bruised shoulder when he fell off while Brazil's Roberto Macedo broke his pelvis when his horse rolled on top of him.

The day began horrifically with seven of the first 12 riders falling or retiring but course designer Mike Etherington-Smith said he could not explain why.

He had designed the course with rider and horse safety in mind and would need to review videotapes to take a close look at what had caused the falls.

New Zealand veteran Mark Todd said most of the falls were probably due to inexperience because many countries put their best riders in the team competition.

"Maybe some lesser riders go in the individual and so you are always going to get trouble."