The U.S. three-day event horses departed for Sydney from Lexington, KY, on Monday, July 31, after spending the night in quarantine at Considine Farm. The horses had traveled from Foxhall, GA, where they had competed in the final selection trials, July 21-23.

The horses and riders are:

Custom Made, Rattle N Hum, Giltedge - David O'Connor
Prince Panache - Karen O'Connor
Jacob Two Two, Hannigan - Abigail Lufkin
Special Attention - Buck Davidson
Chevalier - Robert Costello
Highland Hogan - Becky Douglas
Hyde Park Corner - Julie Black
3 Magic Beans - Nina Fout
Anderoo - Linden Wiesman
R.G. Renegade - Darren Chiacchia was reserve.

Following final veterinary checks, the 12-horse squad headed for Louisville airport to board a Federal Express chartered plane. Their departure had been slightly delayed due to a tropical storm around Hawaii where the plane was scheduled to stop for refueling en route to Sydney.

Five grooms, Liz Cochrane and Tracy Edge (Abigail Lufkin's grooms), Lynn Sheely, (Buck Davidson's groom) Nicole Beauchene (Karen O'Connor's groom) and Coleen Hayduk (David O'Connor's groom), accompanied the twelve horses. They will be met by four other grooms who traveled on a scheduled passenger flight to Sydney as only five grooms were allowed to travel with the horses.

Mark Revenaugh, DVM, is the veterinarian charged with caring for the horses in transit. Revanaugh will be responsible for the horses during the first weeks of their acclimatization in Sydney until the arrival of U.S. team vet, Brendan Furlong, MVB.

The three-day-event team competition begins on September 16, (9:30am Sydney time). This is followed by the individual competition, September 20-22.

For photographs of the horses, please visit our Olympic pages at www.ahsa.org - click on the Olympic link and Eventing tab.

For further information, please contact Christine E. Stafford, Director of Communications on (859) 225 6923 or via email at cstafford@ahsa.org. Press releases are also available on our web site - www.ahsa.org.

The American Horse Shows Association, as the National Equestrian Federation of the U.S., is the regulatory body for the Olympic and World Championship sports of dressage, driving, endurance, eventing, reining, show jumping, and vaulting, as well as 19 other breeds and disciplines of equestrian competition. As the country's largest multi-breed organization, the AHSA has over 70,000 members and recognizes more than 2,600 competitions nationwide each year. It governs all aspects of competition, including educating and licensing all judges, stewards, and technical delegates who officiate at these shows.