Just before O'Connor entered the main arena he was warming up in the schooling area when his horse spooked at something and would not go into one end of the arena. "That's not what you want to happen just before you go into the ring to compete," noted O'Connor, who was pleased with his ride despite the mistakes.

"His trot work was lovely but in the canter work he changed in front before he changed behind," he explained. O'Connor went on to explain that in the reinback, "I thought he was going to shuffle but then he stepped back and I was stuck." By shuffle, O'Connor meant to settle, square up in preparation for the back. When he took that step back then it appeared as if he had already started to back.

When asked if he was nervous, O'Connor said, "yes! This event comes around only once every four years so you don't want to screw up." Yes, O'Connor was nervous about the competition, but no he was not nervous about the crowd or the atmosphere. "It didn't feel too electric in there," he added.

O'Connor, who was competing on the Giltedge, the same horse as at the Atlanta Olympics, said it was an entirely different horse. Now Giltedge was older and more secure. And about the comparison between the Atlanta, Olympics and Sydney, O'Connor noted, "You can't compare the two. Here the conditions are ideal - the footing, the weather." In Atlanta it was in the dead of the summer. In Sydney it is their spring. So, the conditions are perfect and O'Connor is ready.