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Results on Poggio II
Amy Tryon and her mount, Poggio II, return to the Olympic stage in 2008, after winning a team bronze four years ago. At the World Equestrian Games in 2006, Tryon rode Poggio II to an individual bronze medal finish, while the U.S. team fell just short of the podium, finishing in fourth place. The medal was perhaps a bit of redemption from her outing at World four years prior, when she was thrown from Poggio II and finished 45th among 47 entrants. In 1999, she finished fourth in the individual event at the Pan American Games, and helped the U.S. team win gold.

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A packhorse with potential
For an Olympic horse, Poggio II comes from a unique background. Tryon found the 15-year-old gelding ten years ago in the classified section of the Seattle Times in a listing that read "Former mountain packhorse with a Thoroughbred pedigree." Tryon's friend bought the horse for $2500, thinking she would resell him. Seeing the opportunity, Tryon worked out a deal with her friend to trade one of the horses in her stable for Poggio II. "For me, financially, it's reality," she told the Kansas City Star in 2004. "I come from a modest background. It's never been reality to be able to buy expensive horses. All of the horses I ride come from the racetrack outside of Seattle or kind of in the back woods."

Fiery ambition
A rare breed for an elite rider, Tryon spent the majority of her career as a firefighter in Richmond, Wash. She was four courses shy of a four-year bachelor's degree when she decided she wanted to be a firefighter and put academics on hold. She became a volunteer firefighter, where she initially met her husband, Greg. They later reunited at the academy, and married in 1995. After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, she stayed in Washington to cover for her local colleagues who were sent to New York City to partake in the massive recovery effort. Three years later, when Tryon was vying for a spot on the 2004 Olympic team, she was denied leave by the fire department to compete in the final mandatory outing for the Olympic team in July 2004 because of budget concerns. Speaking to the comraderie of her fire department, two of her coworkers organized 35 shift trades to cover her hours so she could compete. She retired in 2006 so she could focus solely on training.

Le Samurai scandal
In the spring of 2007, Tryon faced heavy criticism for an unfortunate turn of events that occurred at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day event with her horse, Le Samurai. Tryon was approaching the last cross-country fence when Le Samurai tripped. Instead of pulling up on the horse, Tryon continued to the finish line, where it became apparent something with seriously wrong. Four days later, he was humanely euthanized after it was determined the extent of his injures were too grave. What followed was an investigation of abuse by the FEI. Tryon maintained that she was unaware of the damage to the horse at the time, and if she had known, she would have stopped. "While I am incredibly remorseful of the decision I made on course at the time, and it was clearly the wrong thing to do, I don't have 20-20 vision when it's happening at the time," she told the EquiWire News in 2007. "This was an accident, and I take full responsibility for that accident, but it was an accident." The FEI agreed that she had no intent to cause harm to the horse, and she was suspended for two months.

Big dreams
Tryon can thank her mother, who bought Amy and her sister, Kerrie, a Shetland pony when Amy was only a year old. Growing up, Tryon was involved in Pony Club, an international organization for horse-loving kids, and 4-H. Raised by a single parent, however, Tryon was aware of the financial sacrifices that becoming an equestrian would place on her mother, "I used to read books and watch video tapes of the people that I idolized, but never thought I would have the opportunity to compete at that level with those people and travel the world."