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headed for her first Olympics.
Replacing White will be Virginia veteran Karen O’Connor and Joan Goswell’s Mandiba. O’Connor, 50, will be riding in her fourth Olympics. She competed in Seoul in 1988, Atlanta in 1996 (team silver) and 2000 in Sydney (team bronze.)
O’Connor is based in The Plains, where she trains at Jackie Mars’ with husband, and fellow Olympic vet, David O’Connor. The ‘96 medal marked the first husband and wife on the same Olympic podium at a summer games.
Karen O’Connor moved to Virginia in early 1977 to train with another Olympic three-day eventer, Jimmy Wofford of Upperville.
In May; O’Connor lost her first-string Olympic horse when Theodore O’Connor (no relation) bolted when out hacking with a groom near the training farm and severed tendons and ligaments in a hind leg. The Pan American Games champion was subsequently euthanized, leaving O’Connor with the young Mandiba, at 9 the junior” team horse, as her only Olympic hope.
The bay gelding - by Master Imp out of Hello Dolly - was named one of four traveling alternates for the U.S. squad, and has been training in England with the four-man team since late June.
When Northern Spy was pulled from the team early on Monday, selectors and veterinarians made a quick assessment of the alternates and chose Mandiba as the fittest, most qualified horse - and the experienced O’Connor a natural pick-up rider — to join the team.
In the Olympic three-day event, five team members compete; the top three scores count for the team total. The team now consists of Amy Tryon on Poggio, Phillip Dutton on Connaught, Gina Miles on McKinlaigh and Becky Holder on Courageous Comet. Holder, riding then in her maiden name Douglas, was an alternate for the "96 team from her former base in The Plains.
Another of Virginia’s hopes for the 2008 squad. Gordonsv i 1 le- based alternate Bonnie Mosser, pulled her horse Merloch from team consideration due to a minor injury that will return the pair to the U.S. prematurely; traveling alternates that did not get to make the trip to Hong Kong were going to remain in England to compete in the international Burghley three-day event in
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