Custom Made

CUSTOM MADE FACTS AND FIGURES

Born: 1985

Died: 2019

Stable name: Tailor

Breeders: Kitty Horgan and Elizabeth O’Flynn

Studbook: Irish Sport Horse

Breeding: by the thoroughbred stallion Bassompierre out of Purple Heather, an Irish Sport Horse mare by the Irish Draught sire Ben Purple Height: 17.1hh

IT’S mid-September in 2000 and American David O’Connor is riding Custom Made out in some fields in Australia. The pair happen across a few thousand sheep being herded and pitch in to help, mounting banks and manoeuvring over the terrain to keep the sheep on track.

Less than two months before that, Custom Made was kicked while in quarantine and had to have his damaged hock joint flushed – a potentially career-ending injury. A week after his impromptu day of herding sheep, Custom Made wins Olympic gold in Sydney – the last classic long-format Games.

“He was an incredible athlete; he had endless gallop and scope”
DAVID O’CONNOR

The bay gelding’s unremarkable exterior concealed an extraordinary machine: he was