Area resident Amy Tryon will be heading to the Olympic Games next month, along with her Thoroughbred gelding Poggio II.

Tryon, 38, competed on Poggio (Pogi) in the 2004 Athens Games in which she earned a team bronze medal.

The equestrian team specializes in the 3-day event, which consists of dressage the first day, cross country the second and show jumping the third. The event will be held at a venue in Hong Kong, rather than in Beijing, from Aug. 9-21.

The 3-day is a demanding and challenging test of horse and rider. While dressage is a study in rhythm and grace, the cross country is a test of speed, stamina and courage as horse and rider navigate a course of 17 miles of fields and hurdles.

Tryon, who operates a stable near Duvall, is currently training with Pogi in England. Her husband Greg is there also.

In an e-mail report from England, Greg said that “Amy and Pogi are in the ramp-up phase of preparing for the Games. That basically means that they are starting to focus on the actual competition, i.e. they want to peak at the right moment. She has traveled to England to work with the U.S.Team Coach, Captain Mark Phillips, as well as some discipline specific coaches for the Dressage and Show Jumping phases of the Event to help get them to the level necessary for competing against the world’s best horse and rider combinations. The U.S. coach likes to tell his riders that for a major championship, they need to take their best performance, and increase it by 10 percent.

“Each day they have lessons/training sessions with the coaches.The riders travel to the gym and work with personal trainers to increase their fitness (important consideration due to the weather in Hong Kong), and every five days the horses are taken to a specially designed galloping track that is 10 furlongs and is also an 8 percent uphill grade to methodically increase the fitness and lung capacity of each horse.

“The horses will leave on July 30th from London, after spending a little over a week in quarantine at Barbury Castle in England. The horses will travel with a vet and some grooms to help manage their trek safely.

“The riders will leave for Hong Kong on July 31st. The start of the 3-Day Event will be on August 8th with a presentation (Jog Up) for the Ground Jury and veterinary staff to make sure that the horses are ready to compete the next day, August 9th.”