Broken bones mean nothing to three-day event riders. They're part of the territory, as are the heartbreaks. Susan Shortt, who made her Olympic debut in the team three-day event at Horsley Park this weekend, has had more than her share of both heartbreaks and broken bones.

But the heartbreaks hurt more than the physical injuries, which have included a broken leg, collar-bone and ribs. There was the heartbreak of having potential championship rides sold when the owners found the offers too tempting, and the occasions when Shortt was bridesmaid at international three-day events, pipped at the post no fewer than nine times.

"It's not a record," Shortt says, matter of factly. "Andrew Nicholson has been second 11 times and I've only got nine." But it's still the worst place to finish in a line-up. Nobody remembers the also-rans, even if they came closer than anyone else to the winner's enclosure.

In a competition career spanning over 20 years, Shortt has not only missed out on an individual win, she has also never managed a medal at any of the championship events she has ridden in, right from Pony Club through to Olympic level.

Her introduction to the world of horses was a foregone conclusion as a daughter of jockey Paddy Shortt, whose brother Francis was a champion National Hunt jockey. Her brother John was also a top jockey, winning the Glenlivet Hurdle in Aintree with Title Dancer and finishing third in the Champion Hurdle with Space Trucker.

But Kilkenny born, Kildare-based Sue's introductions to riding were on a much less grand scale. "Anything that had four legs got ridden," she says.

But Skippy, bought out of the Goresbridge sales for £70, was the turning point, followed by the ex-racing pony Popalong and then Mossavern, the cob that twice finished second at Punchestown, beginning Shortt's run of near misses.

There were no near misses on the Olympic cross-country track at Horsley Park yesterday, however, where Shortt produced a sensational clear with Joy Of My Heart.

"I'd been putting it out of my mind that it's the Olympics", she says. "If you went round phase A thinking `I'm just about to go round an Olympic cross-country', you'd be wrecked before you even started the chase."

That cool attitude brought Shortt and Joy Of My Heart home through the finish flags with the merest .4 of a time fault to add to their dressage score. And, although the mare will be retired to stud on her return to Ireland, Shortt's performance in Sydney could be the catalyst to finding her a horse that will finally take her onto that elusive medal podium and, better still, a ticket to Athens 2004.